BR  1700  .W3  1922 
Walker,  Williston,  1860- 

1922. 
Great  men  of  the  Christian 

church  


^ 


The  University  of  Chicago  Publications 
IN  Religious  Education 

EDITED  BY 

ERNEST  D.  BURTON  SHAILER  MATHEWS 

THEODORE  G.  SOARES 


CONSTRUCTIVE  STUDIES 


GREAT  MEN  OF  THE 
CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 


THE  UNIVEESITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 

HEW  ¥OBK 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  TINTVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON 

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V 


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'0? 


lUL  12  'i9o1 


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LOGICAL 


GREAT   MEN   OF  THE 
CHRISTIAN   CHURCH 


WiLLisTON  Walker 

Professor  in  YaU  University 


!»1 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Copyright  1908  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Published  December  igo8 

Second  Impression  September  1910 

Third  Impression  September  1917 

Fourth  Impression  October  1919 

Fifth  Impression  September  1922 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

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Chicago,  Illinois.  U.S.A. 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

This  brief  series  of  biographies  is  designed  for  the 
reader  or  student  without  technical  training  in  church 
history.  For  this  reason  considerable  attention  has 
been  paid  to  the  general  condition  of  the  church  or 
of  religious  thought  in  the  periods  in  which  the 
leaders  here  described  did  their  work,  in  order  that 
the  reader  may  appreciate  their  relations  to  their 
times.  The  number  of  biographies  might  well  have 
been  increased  and  the  selection  may  easily  be  criti- 
cized; but  the  writer  believes  that  none  have  been 
chosen  who  were  not  really  representative  men,  and 
his  aim  has  been  to  illustrate  the  manifold  variety 
of  Christian  service,  life,  and  experience. 

In  mentioning  additional  reading  the  aim  has  been 
to  present  a  few  only  of  the  most  accessible  works 
in  the  English  language.  Questions  have  been  ap- 
pended to  facilitate  review  or  to  aid  possible  instruct- 
ors who  have  made  no  special  study  of  church  history. 

Yale  University 
May  I,  1908 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Justin  Martyr i 

TeRTULLIAN 21 

Athanasius 41 

Augustine 63 

Patrick ^5 

Benedict loi 

Hildebrand 117 

^        Godfrey ^39 

^     Francis ^57 

Thomas  Aquinas ^75 

John  Wiclif ^95 

Martin  Luther 215 »- 

^       John  Calvin 235 

/     John  Knox 253 

Ignatius  Loyola 271 

George  Fox 285 

NicoLAUS  Ludwig  von  Zinzendorf     ....  301 

John  Wesley 3^9^ 

^    Jonathan  Edwards 339  ^ 

Horace  Bushnell 355  '^ 

Index 37^ 


JUSTIN  MARTYR 


JUSTIN  MARTYR 

To  pass  from  the  time  of  the  Pauline  epistles  to 
the  middle  of  the  second  century  is  to  come  into  a 
very  different  world  of  thought.  The  old  battle 
which  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  had  bravely  fought 
against  the  imposition  of  a  legalistic  Jewish  yoke 
upon  heathen  converts  had  become  well-nigh  for- 
gotten ancient  history.  The  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem (a.  d.  70)  and  the  rapid  growth  of  churches  on 
Gentile  soil  had  shifted  the  center  of  gravity  of  the 
Christian  population,  so  that  the  vast  majority  of 
disciples  were  now  of  heathen  antecedents.  Of  all 
parts  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Asia  Minor  was  that  in 
which  the  church  was  now  most  strongly  represented. 
Syria,  northward  of  Palestine,  Macedonia,  and 
Greece  were  only  in  less  degree  its  home.  Probably 
it  was  already  growing  strong  in  Egypt.  A  close- 
knit,  extensive,  influential,  Greek-speaking  congre- 
gation was  to  be  found  in  Rome,  and  a  group  of 
small  assemblies  existed  in  the  Rhone  Valley  of  what 
is  now  France.  Probably,  but  less  certainly,  the 
church  was  already  well  represented  in  the  old  Car- 
thaginian region  of  Africa ;  but,  in  general,  the  Latin 
portion  of  the  Empire  was  as  yet  little  reached  by 
the  gospel. 


4     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Christians,  though  rapidly  growing  in  numbers, 
were  still  chiefly  from  the  lower  classes  of  the  popu- 
lation and  of  slight  social  influence.  They  were 
knit  to  one  another  by  a  common  belief  in  God  and 
Christ;  a  confidence  in  a  divine  revelation  contained 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  continued  through  men 
of  the  gospel  age  and  subsequent  times  by  the  ever- 
working  Spirit  of  God ;  a  morality  relatively  high  as 
compared  with  that  of  surrounding  heathenism; 
and  a  confident  hope  that  the  present  evil  world  was 
speedily  to  pass  away,  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  to 
be  established  in  its  stead.  As  sojourners  separated 
from  the  world  they  owed  each  other  aid,  and  devel- 
oped a  noble  Christian  benevolence. 

Yet,  though  the  Christianity  of  the  middle  of  the 
second  century  had  possessed  itself  fully  of  Paul's 
freedom  from  Jewish  ceremonialism,  it  was  far  from 
being  Pauline.  It  did  not  consciously  reject  him; 
but  it  was  unable  to  grasp  his  more  spiritual  concep- 
tions of  sin  and  grace  and  the  significance  of  Christ's 
death.  Paul  had  been  only  one,  if  the  greatest, 
of  the  missionaries  by  whom  Christianity  had  been 
preached.  To  ordinary  disciples  of  heathen  ante- 
cedents Christ  seemed  primarily  the  revealer  of  the 
one  true  God  whom  heathenism  had  but  dimly 
known,  and  the  proclaimer  of  a  new  and  purer  law  of 
right  living.  God,  through  Christ,  had  revealed  his 
nature  and  purposes,  and  had  given  new  command- 
ments which  were  to  be  fulfilled  by  chaste  living  and 


JUSTIN  MARTYR  5 

upright  conduct.  "  Keep  the  commandments  of  the 
Lord,  and  thou  shalt  be  well-pleasing  to  God,  and 
shalt  be  enrolled  among  the  number  of  them  that 
keep  his  commandments,'"  said  Hermas,  writing  at 
Rome  between  130  and  140;  but  he  added  with  an 
utterly  un-Pauline  feeling  of  the  possibility  of  works  of 
supererogation:  "but  if  thou  do  any  good  thing  out- 
side the  commandment  of  God,  thou  shalt  win  for 
thyself  more  exceeding  glory."  "Fasting  is  better 
than  prayer,  but  almsgiving  than  both,"  said  a 
preacher  to  his  hearers  a  few  years  later,  probably 
in  Corinth  or  Rome.' 

These  changing  conceptions  of  the  Christian  life 
were  not  the  chief  perils,  however,  which  Christianity 
was  encountering.  It  had  come  into  no  world 
empty  of  thought.  As  we  do  now,  that  age  attempted 
to  interpret  the  gospel  message  in  the  light  of  its 
own  science  and  its  own  conceptions.  It  had  its 
own  philosophies  and  its  own  religions  with  their 
secrets  for  those  initiated  into  their  mysteries.  The 
result  was  a  number  of  interpretations  of  Christianity, 
called  in  general  "Knowledge"  (yvooac^),  the  thought 
being  that  those  who  possessed  this  inner  and  deeper 
understanding  knew  the  real  essence  of  the  gospel 
much  better  than  the  ordinary  believer.  Gnos- 
ticism had  its  beginnings  before  the  later  books  of 
the  New  Testament  were  written.     The  Pastoral 

I  Similitudes,  \:^. 

*  The  Sermon  erroneously  called  II  Clement,  chap.  16. 


6     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Epistles  and  the  Johannine  literature,  whenever 
composed,  contain  clear  references  to  it.^  Its  full 
systems  did  not,  however,  develop  their  power  till  the 
second  quarter  of  the  second  century.  Gnosticism 
had  many  forms,  but  its  essential  feature  was  that 
it  made  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  a  relatively 
weak  and  imperfect  being.  It  taught  that  the  perfect 
and  hitherto  unknown  God,  far  abler  and  better  than 
the  God  of  the  Old  Testament,  sent  Christ  to  reveal 
himself  and  to  give  men  the  knowledge  by  which 
they  can  be  brought  from  the  kingdom  of  evil  to 
that  of  light.  Since  most  Gnostics  regarded  this 
physical  world  as  evil,  any  real  incarnation  was 
unthinkable,  and  Christ's  death  can  have  been  in 
appearance  only.  If  his  body  was  more  than  a 
ghostly  deception,  then  Jesus  was  a  man  indwelt  by 
the  divine  Christ  only  from  his  baptism  to  shortly 
before  his  expiring  agony  on  the  cross. 

This  thinking,  though  urged  by  men  of  great 
ability,  denied  the  historic  continuity  of  Christianity 
with  the  Old  Testament  revelation,  it  rejected  a  real 
incarnation,  and  it  changed  Christianity  from  a 
historic  faith  to  a  higher  form  of  knowledge  for  the 
initiated,  explanatory  of  the  origin  and  nature  of 
the  universe.  This  Gnostic  crisis  was  the  most 
severe  through  which  the  church  had  yet  passed; 
and  its  dangers  were  doubly  increased  when  essen- 
tially Gnostic  views  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the 

I  E.g.,  I  Tim.  1:4;  6:20;  II  Tim.  3:6-8;  IJohn4:2,  3. 


JUSTIN  MARTYR  7 

inferior  character  of  the  God  therein  revealed,  though 
by  no  means  all  the  Gnostic  positions,  were  advocated 
by  a  man  of  deep  religious  spirit,  in  some  respects 
the  first  church  reformer  of  history,  Marcion.  Hav- 
ing come  from  Asia  Minor  to  Rome  about  140,  he 
broke  with  the  Roman  church  in  144,  charging  it, 
not  wholly  groundlessly,  with  having  perverted 
Paul's  Gospel  to  a  new  Jewish  legalism.  To  him 
Paul  was  the  only  genuine  apostle;  and  he  gathered 
a  little  collection  of  sacred  writings,  including  ten  of 
Paul's  epistles  and  the  Gospel  of  Luke,  but  shorn 
of  all  passages  intimating  that  the  God  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  identical  with  Him  whom  Christ 
revealed.  All  the  rest  of  the  apostles  and  of  our 
New  Testament  writings  he  rejected.  It  was  indeed 
true  that  the  church  of  his  day  was  un-Pauline;  but 
his  Paulinism  was  of  a  type  which  Paul  himself 
would  have  been  the  first  to  discredit. 

To  the  Gnostics  the  party  in  the  church  repre- 
senting historic  Christianity  replied  by  gathering  a 
collection  of  authoritative  writings,  the  major  part 
of  our  New  Testament;  by  the  preparation  of  creeds, 
of  which  that  at  the  basis  of  what  we  wrongly  call 
the  "Apostles"  is  the  earliest;  and,  especially,  by  ap- 
pealing to  the  teaching  handed  down  in  the  churches 
founded  by  the  apostles,  and  guaranteed  by  the  con- 
tinuity of  their  officers.  Out  of  this  struggle  the 
rigid,  doctrinally  conservative,  legalistic  church  of  the 
third  century— the  "Old  Catholic"  church— came. 


8     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

To  these  perils  from  within  were  added  the 
dangers  which  sprang  from  popular  hatred,  due  to 
heathen  misunderstanding  and  jealousy,  and  to  the 
occasional  active  hostility  of  the  Roman  government, 
which  viewed  the  new  religion  as  unpatriotic  and 
stubborn  because  of  the  unwillingness  of  its  ad- 
herents to  conform  to  the  worship  prescribed  by  the 
state.  Its  feeling  was  much  that  which  would 
animate  many  among  us  should  any  considerable 
party  now  refuse  to  honor  the  flag.  To  the  unthink- 
ing, because  they  refused  to  join  in  the  worship 
which  the  state  required,  the  Christians  seemed  at 
once  atheistic  and  unpatriotic.  Popular  superstition, 
because  of  their  refusal  t»  share  in  heathen  festivals 
and  their  worship  by  themselves,  charged  them  with 
practices  of  revolting  immorality.  The  Jews,  also, 
though  politically  insignificant,  were  critical  of 
Christianity;  and,  existing  as  they  did  in  every  large 
Roman  community,  their  objections  had  to  be  met. 
These  conditions  determined  Justin's  work.  He 
would  defend  Christianity  against  its  heathen 
opponents,  its  Jewish  critics,  and  its  enemies  within 
its  own  household.  Hence  the  threefold  battle  which 
he  fought. 

Justin,  in  whom  is  to  be  seen  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  Christian  figures,  as  well  as  one  of  the 
most  useful  Christian  writers,  of  the  second  century, 
was  a  native  of  Flavia  Neapolis,  near  the  older 
Shechem,  in  ancient  Samaria.     Though  thus  born 


JUSTIN  MARTYR  9 

within  the  bounds  of  Palestine,  and  speaking  of 
himself  as  a  Samaritan,  he  was  uncircumcised  and 
doubtless  of  heathen  origin  and  training.  It  was 
not  till  after  his  conversion  that  he  became  familiar 
with  the  Old  Testament.  Of  the  date  of  his  birth 
nothing  certain  is  known ;  but  it  must  have  been  not 
far  from  the  year  100.  From  early  youth  he  was 
evidently  studious,  and  he  gives,  in  his  Dialogue 
with  Trypho,^  a  picturesque  account  of  his  search 
for  a  satisfactory  philosophy.  His  first  initiation 
was  through  a  Stoic,  but  when  he  sought  knowledge 
of  God  this  instructor  told  him  it  was  needless.  He 
then  turned  to  the  Aristotelians,  but  the  promptness 
with  which  the' teacher  sought  his  fee  made  him 
doubt  the  genuineness  of  such  interested  claims.  A 
Pythagorean  next  was  sought,  but  this  philosopher 
insisted  on  extensive  preliminary  acquaintance  with 
music,  astronomy,  and  geometry.  Discouraged  thus, 
Justin  now  turned  with  hope  to  a  Platonist,  and 
found  real  satisfaction  in  this  most  spiritual  of  ancient 
philosophies.  He  must  have  made  no  little  progress 
in  his  new  studies,  for  he  now  adopted  the  philoso- 
pher's cloak  as  his  distinctive  garb — a  dress  which 
he  thenceforth  always  wore.  Yet,  even  while  a 
Platonist,  the  constancy  with  which  Christians  met 
death  impressed  him,  and  led  him  to  doubt  the 
crimes  with  which  they  were  popularly  charged.  It 
was  through  the  gateway  of  his  beloved  philosophy 

I  Chap.  ii. 


lo     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

that  Justin  was  to  be  brought,  however,  into  the 
Christian  fold.  As  he  tells  the  story,  a  chance  meet- 
ing with  an  old  man,  as  he  walked  by  the  sea,  prob- 
ably near  Ephesus,  resulted  in  a  discussion  in  which 
his  adviser  turned  his  attention  to  the  prophets  as 
"men  more  ancient  than  all  those  who  are  esteemed 
philosophers,  both  righteous  and  beloved  of  God, 
who  spoke  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  and  foretold  events 
which  would  take  place,  and  which  are  now  taking 

place Their  writings  are  still  extant."^    The 

effect  upon  the  inquirer  was  immediate  and  power- 
ful. "Straightway,"  he  records,  "a  flame  was 
kindled  in  my  soul;  and  a  love  of  the  prophets,  and 
of  those  men  who  are  friends  of  Christ,  possessed 
me;  and  ....  I  found  this  philosophy  alone  to 
be  safe  and  profitable.  Thus,  and  for  this  reason,  I 
am  a  philosopher."* 

This  conversion,  whether  the  exact  circumstances 
narrated  are  historic  or  are  the  product  of  Justin's 
literary  skill,  took  place,  we  may  conjecture,  before 
A.  D.  135,  and  therefore  before  he  had  reached 
middle  life.^  Its  fundamental  experience  was  in 
entire  harmony  with  Justin's  previous  philosophic 

I  Dialogue,  chap.  vii. 

a  Ihid.,  chap.  viii. 

3  In  his  Dialogiie  he  pictures  his  conversion  as  having  oc- 
curred, possibly  some  considerable  time,  before  his  meeting  with 
the  Jew,  Trypho,  who  is  represented  as  "having  escaped  from  the 
war  lately  carried  on"  in  Judea,  i.  e.,  Bar  Cochba's  rebellion, 
132-35- 


JUSTIN  MARTYR  1 1 

training.  Its  central  feature  was  not,  as  with  Paul,  a 
profound  sense  of  sin,  and  of  new  life  through  union 
with  Christ,  but  rather  a  conviction  that  God  had 
spoken  through  the  prophets  and  revealed  truth  in 
Christ,  and  in  this  message  alone  was  to  be  found  the 
true  philosophy  of  conduct  and  life  and  the  real  ex- 
planation of  the  world  here  and  hereafter.  To  him 
the  Old  Testament  was  always  the  Book  of  books; 
but  primarily  because  it  foretold  the  Christ  that  was 
to  come.  For  these  truths  he  was  willing  to  suffer; 
and  to  teach  them  became  henceforth  his  employ- 
ment. Just  where  he  lived  and  labored  it  is,  in 
general,  impossible  to  say;  but  he  was  in  Rome  soon 
after  the  year  150,  and  it  was  there  that  he  was  later 
to  meet  his  death. 

It  was  at  Rome,  not  improbably  in  152  or  153, 
and  certainly  within  the  four  or  five  years  immediately 
subsequent  to  150,  that  Justin  wrote  his  noteworthy 
defense  of  Christianity  against  its  heathen  opponents 
which  placed  him  first  among  Christian  "  apologists. " 
This  earnest  appeal  for  justice — the  Apology^ — is 
addressed  to  the  emperor,  Antoninus  Pius  (138- 
161),  and  his  adopted  sons,  Marcus  Aurehus  and 
Lucius  Verus.  In  direct  and  manly  fashion  he  calls 
upon  these  rulers  to  ascertain  whether  Christians 
are  really  guilty  of  the  charges  popularly  laid  against 

I  The  so-called  First  and  Second  Apologies  are  really  one. 
They  may  be  found,  in  English  translation  in,  Th«  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers,  I,  163-93. 


12     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

them  and  not  to  condemn  them  on  the  mere  name. 
The  Christians  are  accused  of  atheism,  but  they 
disown  only  the  old  gods,  whose  existence  Justin 
does  not  deny,  but  whom  he  regards  as  wicked 
demons. 

We  confess  that  we  are  atheists,  so  far  as  gods  of  this  sort 
are  concerned,  but  not  with  respect  to  the  most  true  God,  the 
Father  of  righteousness  and  temperance  and  the  other  virtues, 
who  is  free  from  all  impurity. 

They  are  charged  with  disloyalty  to  the  Roman 
state;  but  that  is  due  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the 
nature  of  the  kingdom  that  Christians  seek. 

When  you  hear  that  we  look  for  a  kingdom  you  suppose, 
without  making  any  inquiry,  that  we  speak  of  a  human  king- 
dom; whereas  we  speak  of  that  which  is  with  God. 

Christians  are  not  disloyal.  On  the  contrary 
their  principles  make  them  the  best  of  citizens. 

More  than  all  other  men  we  are  your  helpers  and  allies 
in  promoting  peace,  seeing  that  we  hold  this  view,  that  it  is 
alike  impossible  for  the  wicked,  the  covetous,  the  conspirator, 
and  for  the  virtuous,  to  escape  the  notice  of  God,  and  that 
each  man  goes  to  everlasting  punishment  or  salvation  accord- 
ing to  the  value  of  his  actions. 

Christians  worship  God,  Justin  declares,  ration- 
ally; not  by  destroying  the  good  things  he  has  given 
by  useless  sacrifices,  but  offering 

thanks  by  invocations  and  hymns  for  our  creation,  and  for  all 
the  means  of  health,  and  for  the  various  qualities  of  the  differ- 
ent kinds  qf  things,  and  for  the  changes  of  the  seasons;  and  to 
present  before  Him  petitions  for  our  existing  again  in  incor- 


JUSTIN  MARTYR  13 

niption  through  faith  in  Him.  Our  teacher  of  these  things  is 
Jesus  Christ,  who  also  was  born  for  this  purpose,  and  was 
crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate,  procurator  of  Judea,  in  the 
times  of  Tiberius  Caesar;  and  that  we  reasonably  worship 
Him,  having  learned  that  He  is  the  son  of  the  true  God  Him- 
self, and  holding  Him  in  the  second  place,  and  the  prophetic 
Spirit  in  the  third,  we  will  prove. 

The  last  quotation  shows  that  Justin's  view  of 
Christ  had  not  developed  the  form  which  we  are 
accustomed  to  connect  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity, judged  by  the  standards  of  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries.  He  has  a  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  but  it  is 
relatively  unthought-out.  Yet  his  view  of  Christ  is 
lofty  indeed.  It  sees  in  him  the  divine  activity 
always  manifest  in  the  world,  the  constant  outflowing 
of  the  wisdom  of  God,  or  we  might  say,  the  intel- 
ligence of  God  in  action.  Taking  up  the  "Logos" 
doctrine  of  the  Stoic  philosophers,  so  akin  in  many 
respects  to  that  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  so  easily 
combined  with  the  conception  of  the  divine  ''Wis- 
dom," set  forth,  for  example  in  Proverbs,^  Justin 
taught  that  the  divine  intelligence  had  been  always 
at  work,  not  merely  in  creation  and  in  the  revelation 
of  God  to  an  Abraham  or  a  Moses,  but  illuminating 
a  Socrates  or  a  Heraclitus,  and  the  source  of  all  good 
everywhere.  In  Jesus,  this  divine  Wisdom  was  fully 
revealed.  It,  or  to  reflect  Justin's  view  we  should 
say  He,  "took  shape,  and  became  man,  and  was 
called  Jesus  Christ." 

I  Prov.  8:22-31. 


14     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

In  speaking  of  Justin's  conversion,  mention  was 
made  of  the  importance  which  he  attached  to  the 
prophets  and  to  the  fulfilment  of  their  utterances. 
They  were  men  "  through  whom  the  prophetic  Spirit 
published  beforehand  things  that  were  to  come  to 
pass."  It  was  therefore  natural  that  a  large  part 
of  his  Apology  and  of  his  Dialogue  with  Trypho  was 
devoted  to  an  exposition  of  such  of  their  utterances 
as  he  believed  bore  on  the  life  and  significance  of 
Christ;  but  he  went  much  farther.  Like  Jewish 
writers  before  him,  he  looked  upon  the  philosophers 
of  Greece,  especially  his  honored  Plato,  as  having 
borrowed  much  from  Moses.  In  Christianity  was 
that  true  philosophy  which  all  the  philosophers,  in 
so  far  as  they  have  seen  truth  at  all,  have  dimly 
perceived.  The  Jews,  in  his  opinion,  had  special 
ordinances,  such  as  the  Sabbath,  circumcision,  and 
abstinence  from  unclean  meats,  given  them  on 
account  of  the  peculiar  *' hardness  of  their  hearts;" 
but  Christ  has  now  established  "another  covenant 
and  another  law. "  He  has  revealed  God  and  God's 
will  to  men;  has  overcome  the  demons  who  deceived 
men  and  delighted  in  their  sins,  whom  Justin  iden- 
tifies with  the  old  gods;  and  has  appointed  baptism 
as  the  rite  effecting  the  remission  of  offenses.  Christ's 
work  is,  in  Justin's  estimation,  essentially  that  of  a 
Revealer  and  Lawgiver,  though  he  is  not  without 
some  appreciation  of  the  saving  significance  of  his 
life  and  death  and  declares  that  "we  trust  in  the 


JUSTIN  MARTYR  15 

blood  of  salvation.''  This  redeeming  aspect  of 
Christ's  work  remains,  however,  relatively  unde- 
veloped. 

Thus  Justin  defended  Christianity  against  its  hea- 
then and  its  Jewish  critics.  He  also  replied  to  its 
foes  of  its  own  household,  but  his  writings  against 
Marcion  are  lost.  His  attitude  may,  however,  be 
surmised  from  his  declaration  that  "the  devils  put 
forward  Marcion  of  Pontus. "  The  contest  with 
Gnosticism  was,  indeed,  strenuous;  but  charity  to- 
ward those  deemed  "heretics"  was  never  one  of 
the  virtues  of  the  early  church. 

A  most  interesting  glimpse  is  afforded  in  Justin's 
Apology  of  the  yet  simple  worship  of  the  Roman 
church  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  Admis- 
sion to  its  membership  was  by  faith,  repentance, 
an  upright  life,  and  baptism,  though  in  Justin's  view 
faith  is  primarily  an  acceptance  of  Christ's  teachings 
rather  than  as  with  Paul  a  new  personal  relationship. 

As  many  as  are  persuaded  and  believe  that  what  we  teach 
and  say  is  true,  and  undertake  to  be  able  to  live  accordingly, 
are  instructed  to  pray  and  to  entreat  God  with  fasting,  for 
the  remission  of  their  sins  that  are  past,  we  praying  and  fasting 
with  them.  Then  they  are  brought  by  us  where  there  is 
water,  and  are  regenerated  in  the  same  manner  in  which  we 
were  ourselves  regenerated. 

He  who  was  baptized  was  counted  fully  of  the 
church  and  shared  in  its  worship.  On  Sunday 
the  congregations  gathered  in  city  or  country;  the 
"memoirs  of   the   apostles,"   i.e.,   the  gospels,  or 


i6     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

"the  writings  of  the  prophets"  were  read.  Then 
the  *' president,"  for  Justin  avoids  technical  terms 
for  church  officers,  "verbally  instructed,"  that  is, 
preached  a  sermon.  Next,  all  rose  and  prayed 
standing,  the  "president"  doubtless  leading,  and  the 
people  responding  "Amen."  Prayer  ended,  they 
"saluted  one  another  with  a  kiss."  Bread  and 
wine  mingled  with  water  were  next  brought  to  the 
"president,"  probably  by  the  deacons;  and  after 
"prayers  and  thanksgivings"  offered  by  him,  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  administered  to  those  present,  and 
the  consecrated  elements  were  taken  by  the  deacons 
to  the  absent.  The  service  closed  with  a  collection, 
from  which  the  necessities  of  widows,  orphans,  the 
ill,  prisoners,  and  strangers  were  relieved;  for  "the 
wealthy  among  us  help  the  needy,  and  we  always 
keep  together."  A  pleasing  picture,  surely,  of  the 
simple  worship  and  mutual  helpfulness  of  what  it 
must  be  remembered  were  still  close-knit  little  con- 
gregations, regarding  themselves  as  separate  from 
the  world,  and  all  too  unjustly  looked  upon  by  it  as 
misanthropic,  unpatriotic,  atheistical,  and  guilty  of 
secret  crimes. 

Justin  himself  was  to  receive  the  crown  of  martyr- 
dom. After  the  composition  of  his  Apology  he  left 
Rome,  but  of  his  journeys  we  know  nothing,  and  he 
was  back  in  the  city  where  he  was  to  die  during  the 
governorship  of  its  "prefect,"  Junius  Rusticus,  that 
is  between  163  and  167,  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign 


JUSTIN  MARTYR  1 7 

of  Marcus  Aurelius.  The  account  of  his  trial  gives 
an  interesting  picture  of  the  examination  of  a  com- 
pany of  Christians  at  the  bar  of  Roman  justice.^ 
In  form,  as  in  all  ancient  procedure,  it  was  much 
like  an  examination  in  a  modern  police  court,  the 
judge  questioning  and  sentencing  the  prisoners. 
Justin  was  brought  before  Rusticus,  with  six  other 
Christians,  one  a  woman,  whom  the  judge  evidently 
regarded  as  his  disciples. 

Rusticus  the  prefect  said  to  Justin,  "Obey  the  gods  at 
once,  and  submit  to  the  Kings."  Justin  said,  "To  obey  the 
commandments  of  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  is  worthy  neither 
of  blame  nor  of  condemnation."  Rusticus  the  prefect  said, 
"What  kind  of  doctrines  do  you  profess?"  Justin  said,  "I 
have  endeavored  to  learn  all  doctrines;  but  I  have  acquiesced 
at  last  in  the  true  doctrines,  namely  of  the  Christians,  even 
though  they  do  not  please  those  who  hold  false  opinions." 
Rusticus  the  prefect  said,  "Are  those  the  doctrines  that  please 
you,  you  utterly  wretched  man?"  Justin  said,  "Yes,  since 
I  adhere  to  them  with  orthodoxy."^ 

Justin  then  tried  to  explain  Christianity;  but  the 
judge  soon  cut  him  short. 

Rusticus  the  prefect  said,  "Tell  me  where  you  assemble, 
or  into  what  place  do  you  collect  your  followers?"  Justin 
said,  "I  live  above  one  Martinus,  at  the  Timiotinian  Bath; 
and  during  the  whole  time  (and  I  am  now  living  in  Rome  for 
the  second  time)  I  am  unaware  of  any  other  meeting  than  his." 

1  Its  genuineness,  formerly  doubted,  is  now  generally  admitted. 
See  Harnack,  Geschichte  der  altchrist.  Litteratur,  Chronologie, 
I,  282. 

2  The  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  I,  305,  306. 


1 8     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Whether  this  was  literally  so  may  be  doubted, 
but  Justin  was  not  unnaturally  anxious  to  prevent 
persecution  extending  to  his  fellow-Christians.^ 

Rusticus  said,  "Are  you  not  then  a  Christian?"  Justin 
said,  "Yes,  I  am  a  Christian." 

Thus  satisfied  of  the  guilt  of  the  prisoner,  the 
judge  turned  to  his  six  fellow-accused,  and  tried  to 
make  several  of  them  acknowledge  themselves 
Justin's  disciples.  They  all  promptly  owned  them- 
selves Christians,  but  gave  evasive  answers  as  to 
Justin's  share  in  their  conversion,  doubtless  wishing 
to  shield  him.  But  the  judge  was  disposed  to  over- 
look the  past  provided  the  prisoners  would  now 
yield  full  obedience.  Here  came,  as  in  most  early 
Christian  trials,  the  real  test  of  steadfastness;  and 
a  terrible  test  it  was.  A  pinch  of  incense  cast  on 
the  fire  burning  on  the  altar  before  the  bench  would 
have  freed  them;  but  it  would,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  time,  have  been  a  denial  of  Christ. 

The  prefect  says  to  Justin,  "Hearken,  you  who  are  called 
learned,  and  think  that  you  know  true  doctrines;  if  you  are 
scourged  and  beheaded,  do  you  believe  you  will  ascend  into 
heaven  ?"  Justin  said,  "I  hope  that,  if  I  endure  these  things, 
I  shall  have  His  gifts.  For  I  know  that,  to  all  who  have  thus 
lived,  there  abides  the  divine  favor  until  the  completion  of  the 
whole  world."  Rusticus  the  prefect  said,  "Do  you  suppose, 
then,  that  you  will  ascend  into  heaven  to  receive  some  recom- 

I  Possibly  Justin  meant  that  his  was  the  only  "  school  "  where 
Christianity  was  taught  in  Rome.  See  Harnack,  Die  Mission 
und  Aushreitung  des  Christentums,  p.  260. 


JUSTIN  MARTYR  19 

pense?"  Justin  said,  "I  do  not  suppose  it,  but  I  know  and 
am  fully  persuaded  of  it."  Rusticus  the  prefect  said,  "Let 
us,  then,  now  come  to  the  matter  in  hand,  and  which  presses. 
Having  come  together,  offer  sacrifice  with  one  accord  to  the 
gods. "  Justin  said,  "No  right-thinking  person  falls  away  from 
piety  to  impiety."  Rusticus  the  prefect  said,  "Unless  ye  obey, 
ye  shall  be  mercilessly  punished."  Justin  said,  "Through 
prayer  we  can  be  saved  on  account  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
even  when  we  have  been  punished,  because  this  shall  become  to 
us  salvation  and  confidence  at  the  more  fearful  and  universal 
judgment-seat  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour, "  Thus  also  said  the 
other  martyrs:  "Do  what  you  will,  for  we  are  Christians,  and 
do  not  sacrifice  to  idols."  Rusticus  the  prefect  pronounced 
sentence,  saying,  "Let  those  who  have  refused  to  sacrifice  to 
the  gods  and  to  yield  to  the  command  of  the  emperor  be 
scourged,  and  led  away  to  suffer  the  punishment  of  decapita- 
tion, according  to  the  laws. " 

So  died,  a  martyr  for  his  faith,  one  of  the  most 
deserving  of  the  Christian  leaders  of  the  second 
century. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  was  the  state  of  Christianity  in  the  middle  of 
the  second  century  ?  Its  geographical  extent  ?  Its  external 
enemies  ? 

2.  How  far  was  this  Christianity  Pauline  ? 

3.  Gnosticism,  its  nature  and  dangers  ?    How  was  it  met  ? 

4.  The  circumstances  of  Justin's  life?  His  conversion? 
His  chief  writings  ? 

5.  Against  what  charges  and  how  does  he  defend  the  Chris- 
tians? 

6.  Justin's  view  of  Christ  ? 

7.  His  valuation  of  the  Old  Testament  ?  His  opinion  of 
the  old  gods  ? 


20     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

A;-^  8.  How  does  he  describe  the  terms   of  admission  to  the 
church  ?    Its  services  ? 

9.  The  circumstances  of  Justin's  trial  and  death. 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

F.  W.  Farrar,  Lives  of  the  Fathers  (New  York,  1889),  I,  93- 

117. 
PhiUp  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (New  York, 

1889),  II,  710-26 


TERTULLIAN 


II 

TERTULLIAN 

The  general  tendencies  characteristic  of  the  church 
in  the  days  of  Justin  continued  to  show  their  force 
during  the  half-century  that  followed  his  martyr- 
dom. At  his  death  the  Gnostic  movement,  against 
which  he  struggled,  was  at  its  height.  It  continued 
to  engage  the  opposing  strength  of  the  ablest  cham- 
pions of  what  was  beginning  to  call  itself  the  "  Catho- 
lic," that  is  "Universal,"  church,  in  distinction  from 
all  "  heretical "  bodies.  That  name  goes  back  indeed 
to  Ignatius  of  Antioch,  and  the  opening  years  of 
the  second  century ;  but  was  used  by  him  as  a  desig- 
nation of  the  ideal  communion  of  all  Christians,  as 
we  now  speak  of  the  ''invisible"  church.  But,  by 
the  close  of  the  second  century,  it  was  becoming 
the  designation  of  the  visible,  close-knit  body, 
spreading  throughout  the  Roman  Empire,  and 
representing  historic  Christianity  over  against  the 
more  recent  speculations  of  Gnosticism.  Its  em- 
phasis on  the  succession  of  its  officers  as  guarantee- 
ing the  continuity  of  its  faith,  its  insistence  on  testing 
purity  of  doctrine  by  creeds,  and  its  recognition  of  a 
collection  of  authoritative  New  Testament  books, 
were  the  chief  means  by  which  it  fought  the  "here- 
tics;"   but  these  characteristics  tended  rapidly  to 

23 


24     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

bind  Christianity  with  fixed  forms  of  worship,  of 
doctrine,  and  of  organization,  to  legahze  and  exter- 
nahze  it,  and  were  therefore  producing  that  com- 
pactly organized,  rigid  form  of  the  church  which 
has  been  well  called  by  modern  scholars  the  "Old 
Catholic,"  to  distinguish  it  from  the  later  Greek 
and  Roman  Catholic  churches,  which  in  so  many 
ways  resembled  it. 

Yet  it  would  be  wrong  to  look  upon  this  develop- 
ment as  wholly  an  evil.  No  organization  less  com- 
pact and  united  could  probably  have  conquered  the 
Roman  Empire.  It  is  difficult,  moreover,  to  see  in 
what  other  ways  the  Gnostics  could  have  been  over- 
come. What  could  a  Christian  of  the  second  cen- 
tury answer  to  their  claims  to  a  new  and  profound 
knowledge  of  Christianity,  but  that  their  views  were 
not  contained  in  the  writings  of  apostles  and  Evangel- 
ists, and  had  never  been  taught  by  the  responsible 
ofl&cers  of  the  churches  which  the  apostles  founded  ? 
The  result  of  this  reply  was,  however,  twofold.  It 
emphasized  the  feeling  that  the  bishops,  who  had 
become  well-nigh  universal  by  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,  by  reason  of  their  position  as  heads 
of  important  churches,  were  guardians  of  the  faith 
handed  down  from  the  apostles;  and  it  specially 
increased  the  prestige,  as  foimtains  of  pure  doctrine, 
of  those  churches  in  which  the  apostles  themselves 
had  labored.  There,  certainly,  it  was  easy  to  think, 
men  would  know  what  the  apostles  had  taught,  and 


TERTULLIAN  25 

by  them  error  could  be  detected  and  resisted.  Of 
these  apostolic  churches  there  were  many  in  the 
eastern  half  of  the  Empire;  but  the  West  claimed 
only  one — that  of  Rome — rendered  doubly  in- 
fluential by  its  position  in  the  capital  of  the  Empire 
and  its  numerous  congregation.  Hence  we  find 
the  anti-heretical  champions  of  the  latter  half  of  the 
second  century  urging  the  necessity  of  agreement  in 
doctrine  with  Rome.  Not  that  they  recognized  in 
the  Roman  church  any  legislative  authority;  but 
because  Christian  truth  had  there  been  handed  down 
since  Paul;  and  Peter  also  (so  men  of  the  closing 
quarter  of  the  second  century  firmly,  and  probably 
truly,  believed),  had  there  taught  and  suffered. 

Conspicuous  among  these  champions  was  Ire- 
naeus,  the  ablest  theologian  of  the  second  century. 
While  recent  discussion  has  been  much  divided  as 
to  the  epoch  of  his  birth,'  he  was  evidently  a  native 
of  Asia  Minor,  and  in  youth  a  hearer  of  the  martyr, 
Polycarp  of  Smyrna,  who,  in  turn,  had  listened  to 
the  apostle  John,  How  much  Irenaeus  received 
from  Polycarp  may  well  be  questioned,  but  he  un- 
doubtedly represented  and  transmitted  the  Asia 
Minor  type  of  theology,  of  which  the  Johannine 
Gospel  and  epistles  are  the  highest  productions. 
His  work  was  not  to  be,  however,  in  his  native  region. 
About  154  he  visited  Rome;   and,  before  177,  was 

iZahn  puts  it  about  115;  Hamack,  135-142.  Polycarp 
suffered  February  23,  155. 


26     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

a  presbyter  in  the  far-off  Christian  outpost  of  Lyons 
in  what  is  now  France.  In  the  year  last  mentioned 
a  severe  persecution  of  that  congregation  began.  Its 
aged  bishop,  Pothinus,  suffered  martyrdom;  and  to 
the  office  thus  made  vacant  Irenaeus  succeeded, 
holding  it  till  his  death,  soon  after  190.  Here  in  the 
closing  years  of  his  bishopric,  181-89,  ^^  wrote  his 
chief  work.  Against  Heresies.  To  him  the  New 
Testament  is  fully  as  authoritative  as  the  Old,  and 
the  tradition  handed  down  in  churches  of  apostolic 
foundation  is  its  proper  interpreter.  Scripture  and 
tradition  alike,  he  urged,  give  no  countenance  to  the 
Gnosticism  which  he  elaborately  described  and 
refuted.  But  he  had  his  own  clear  central  theologic 
thought  of  the  work  of  Christ.  He  is  the  most 
original  theologian  since  Paul.  God  made  man  in 
his  own  image  and  like  himself  immortal;  but  Adam 
broke  this  union  and  destroyed  in  large  part  God's 
work,  man  becoming  mortal  thereby.  In  Christ  the 
work  so  interrupted  has  been  restored;  mortality 
becomes  immortal;  and  hence  he  is  the  head  of  a 
redeemed  humanity.^  It  is  interesting  to  note  also, 
that  in  Irenaeus  we  find  the  earliest  clear  intimation 
of  the  prevalence  of  infant  baptism;^  and  that  his  own 
anticipation,  like  that  of  the  apostolic  age,  placed 
the  coming  of  Christ  to  reign  over  a  redeemed  earth 
near  at  hand.     In  Irenaeus  Gnosticism  had  its  most 

1  Book  III,  18,  I. 

2  Book  II,  22,  4. 


TERTULLIAN  27 

able  opponent,  and  the  forming  "Old  Catholic" 
church  one  of  its  most  gifted  defenders. 

Irenaeus  belonged  to  two  epochs.  In  him  the 
traditional  theology  of  the  early  church  as  illustrated 
in  such  a  doctrine  as  that  of  Christ's  speedy  second 
coming  was  combined  with  the  newer  emphasis  on 
creed,  organization,  and  orderly  succession — thoughts 
which  logically  involved  the  expectation  of  a  slow 
and  long-protracted  growth  of  the  church.  In  most 
minds  the  millennial  anticipation  was  growing  dim, 
and  close-knit  order,  regular  succession,  and  agree- 
ment with  generally  recognized  creeds  were  becoming 
the  tests  of  the  true  church,  rather  than  that  imme- 
diate, enthusiastic  confidence  in  the  leadership  of  the 
Spirit  and  his  inspiration  of  '' spirit-filled"  men  which 
had  marked  the  apostolic  age'  and  persisted  in  ever- 
weakening  measure  into  the  second  century.  It 
was  natural,  however,  that  a  reaction  in  favor  of  the 
older  views  should  manifest  itself,  and  such  a  revival 
of  the  earlier  faith  in  the  direct  and  present  special 
inspiration  of  Christians  by  the  Spirit  appeared  in 
an  exaggerated  form  in  Montanism. 

Soon  after  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  pos- 
sibly in  157,  Montanus,  who  is  said  to  have  been  a 
recently  Christianized  priest  of  Cybele,  began  his 
teaching  in  Phrygia,  in  Asia  Minor.  With  him  as 
a  prophet  were  soon  joined  two  prophetesses,  Prisca 
and  Maximilla,   the  latter  of  whom  survived  her 

I  E.  g.,  I  Cor.  12:4-11. 


28     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

associates  and  died  in  179.  To  their  thinking  the 
promise  of  Christ  that  "the  Spirit  of  Truth"'  should 
come  was  fulfilled  in  their  utterances.  They  affirmed 
the  immediately  approaching  end  of  the  world ;  and 
declared  that,  as  a  preparation,  all  Christians  should 
lead  lives  of  peculiar  asceticism.  Paul  had  recom- 
mended abstinence  from  marriage  for  the  same  rea- 
son,* but  the  ascetic  spirit  had  been  steadily  rising 
since  his  time,  and  Montanus  went  much  farther. 
He  commended  virginity  as  specially  pleasing  to 
God,  condemned  a  second  marriage  as  unlawful, 
and  greatly  multiplied  and  increased  the  strenuous- 
ness  of  fasts.  Martyrdom  was  not  to  be  avoided 
by  flight,  but  sought  as  an  honor  to  Christ.  These 
views  won  widespread  following,  and  were  soon 
represented,  not  only  in  Asia  Minor,  but  in  the 
western  portions  of  the  Empire,  where  their  ascetic 
rather  than  their  prophetic  aspects  won  most  ap- 
proval. 

Such  was  the  situation  in  the  church  when 
Quintus  Septimius  Florens  Tertullianus  began  his 
noteworthy  activity  as  a  writer  on  Christian  themes. 
Born  in  the  ancient  Carthage,  probably  between  the 
years  150  and  155,  he  was  the  son  of  a  centurion  in 
Roman  service,  and  was  educated  in  the  excellent 
schools  of  that  flourishing  capital  of  Roman  North 
Africa  as  a  heathen.     Here  and  at  Rome  he  studied 

I  John  16:13. 

a  I  Cor.  7 : 7,  24-40. 


TERTULLIAN  29 

rhetoric  and  philosophy,  and  gained  considerable 
acquaintance  with  law,  though  the  extent  of  his  legal 
knowledge  has  probably  been  usually  exaggerated. 
Of  passionate,  fiery  nature,  intense  in  all  that  he  did, 
his  life  as  a  heathen  attorney  in  Carthage,  or  pos- 
sibly also  in  Rome,  was  not  unspotted;  and  on  his 
conversion  to  Christianity,  an  event  which  occurred 
in  one  of  the  years  from  about  185  to  195,  he  mani- 
fested at  once  a  Puritan  severity.  He  was  chosen 
a  presbyter  at  some  uncertain  date,  but  probably 
not  long  after  his  conversion.  He  never  rose  to 
higher  rank  in  the  ministry.  In  202  or  203,  during 
the  reign  of  Septimius  Severus,  a  wave  of  persecu- 
tion swept  over  the  North  African  church,  and  it  is 
probable  that  in  connection  with  its  strenuous 
sifting  of  the  disciples  there  Tertullian  became 
acquainted  with  the  courage  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
Montanists.  Their  asceticism  attracted  him.  By 
206-8,  he  had  attached  himself  to  them  wholly  and 
had  broken  with  the  "Old  Catholic"  church,  which 
from  now  onward  he  unsparingly  condemned. 
All  of  his  later  writings  show  him  as  a  convinced 
Montanist;  but,  if  a  tradition  preserved  by  Augustine 
is  to  be  trusted,  he  separated  in  old  age  from  even 
these  associates  and  founded  a  little  sect  of  his  own. 
Certainly  so-called  TertuUianists  were  to  be  found 
in  Carthage  nearly  two  centuries  subsequent  to  his 
death,  which  took  place  not  long  after  the  year  222. 
Great  a^  his  services  to  theology,  especially  to  that 


so     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  Latin  Christendom,  were  to  be,  this  Montanism, 
so  congenial  to  his  enthusiastic  and  Puritanic  tem- 
perament, has  robbed  him  of  the  fame  that  would 
otherwise  have  been  his.  Without  this  "heresy," 
he  would  undoubtedly  have  lived  in  Christian  tra- 
dition as  ''Saint"  Tertullian.  Yet  his  asceticism 
went  little  farther  than  that  which  the  "Catholic" 
church  was  to  praise  within  two  centuries  of  his 
death;  while  his  faith  in  the  prophetic  claims  of 
Montanism  was  hardly  more  than  an  exaggeration 
of  that  belief  in  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which 
had  been  universal  in  the  church  of  the  apostolic  age. 

Tertullian's  chief  fame  is  as  a  writer.  Though 
he  used  Greek  freely  and  wrote  in  that  language 
treatises  that  are  now  lost,  North  Africa  was  a  Latin- 
speaking  land,  and  Latin  was  the  vehicle  which  he 
preferred.  By  its  use  he  became  "the  father  of 
church  Latinity."  He  stamped  the  impress  of  his 
own  thought  and  usage  permanently  on  the  language. 
Nervous,  vigorous,  often  strained  and  far-fetched  in 
his  speech,  he  is  always  the  passionate  advocate  of 
his  cause.  Tertullian  was  never  dull.  He  was 
often  unfair  to  opponents,  not  always  consistent  with 
himself,  but  always  readable  and  effective.  His 
force  was  that  of  a  mighty,  passionate  personality, 
who  felt  strongly  and  wrote  at  a  white  heat. 

Tertullian's  tracts,  about  thirty  of  which  have 
survived,  naturally  fall  into  three  great  groups,  the 
earliest,  written  before  202,  which  show  no  Mon- 


TERTULLIAN  31 

tanist  leanings,  those  of  his  transition  period,  and 
those  after  his  breach  with  the  "Old  Catholic" 
church  and  full  acceptance  of  Montanism.  His  vehe- 
ment invective,  always  marked,  rises  to  its  greatest 
heights  as  he  feels  himself  the  representative  of  a 
small  and  rejected  Christian  party. 

Tertullian's  writings  embrace  a  great  variety  of 
themes.  He  defended  his  conceptions  of  Christian- 
ity against  Marcion,  Praxeas,  and  other  "heretics." 
He  exhorted  his  readers  to  modesty  in  apparel  and 
conduct.  He  warned  against  the  theater,  second 
marriages,  or  flight  in  persecution.  He  encouraged 
martyrs.  He  discussed  the  soul,  baptism,  penance, 
patience,  prayer,  idolatry,  the  resurrection.  The 
whole  round  of  Christian  life  and  doctrine  interested 
him. 

To  Tertullian's  thinking  Christianity  is  a  great 
divine  foolishness,  wiser  than  the  merely  human 
wisdom  of  the  deepest  philosophies,  but  in  no  way 
to  be  squared  with  them.  "Away  with  all  attempts 
to  produce  a  mottled  Christianity  of  Stoic,  Platonic, 
and  dialectic  composition.  We  want  no  curious 
disputation  after  possessing  Christ  Jesus,  no  in- 
quisition after  enjoying  the  gospel.  With  our  faith 
we  desire  no  further  behef."'  This  was  the  direct 
contradiction,  not  merely  of  the  Gnostic  position,  but 
of  the  influential  school  of  theology  then  beginning 
in  Alexandria,  of  which  Origen  was  to  be  the  most 

I  Prescription,  chap.  vii. 


32     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

brilliant  teacher.  That  school  viewed  philosophy 
as  the  handmaid  of  a  true  theology,  and  sought  to 
unite  the  two  in  a  great  intellectual  explanation  of 
Christian  truth.  Christianity,  in  Tertullian's  teach- 
ing, demands  a  complete  change  of  life.  Christ 
"preached  the  new  law  and  the  new  promise  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."^  This  Christian  inheritance 
is  the  possession  solely,  Tertullian  argues,  of  the 
orthodox  church.  In  his  Prescription  against  Here- 
tics y  written  between  198  and  203,  and  therefore 
before  he  became  a  Montanist,  he  denies  to  the 
''heretics'^  any  right  in  the  Scriptures,  or  any  share 
in  true  Christian  tradition,  and  appeals  to  the 
churches  founded  by  the  apostles  as  the  depositaries 
and  guardians  of  the  truth.  That  truth  once  pos- 
sessed, it  is  merely  idle  curiosity  to  inquire  farther. 
"You  must  'seek'  until  you  'find,'  and  beheve  when 
you  have  found ;  nor  have  you  anything  further  to  do 
but  to  keep  what  you  have  beheved."*  The  prin- 
ciple he  here  enunciates  is  one  of  mighty  influence 
in  the  church  till  the  Reformation  broke  its  fetters. 
It  makes  it  the  prime  duty  of  the  Christian  to  accept 
unquestioningly  the  faith  which  the  church  trans- 
mits to  him. 

Tertullian  has,  however,  a  keener  sense  of  the 
depths  of  human  sinfulness,  and  of  the  need  of  divine 
grace  for  man's  rescue  than  any  writer  had  possessed 

I  Prescription,  chap.  xiii. 
»  Ihid.f  chap.  ix. 


TERTULLIAN  33 

since  Paul.  Christianity  is  above  all  a  revelation  of 
salvation;  and  this  primacy  of  the  great  doctrines  of 
sin  and  grace  he  was  to  impress  on  the  Latin  portion 
of  Christendom  to  a  degree  never  paralleled  in  the 
East,  and  that  may  be  said  to  have  influenced  ulti- 
mately all  Latin  and  Reformation  thought.  But 
though  profoundly  conscious  of  the  reality  and  de- 
pravity of  sin,  TertuUian  lays  great  weight  on  works 
in  his  doctrine  of  salvation.  We  are  "competitors 
for  salvation  in  earning  the  favor  of  God;"^  by  public 
confession,  by  "mortification  of  our  flesh  and  spirit," 
we  "  make  satisfaction  for  our  former  sins. "  *  These 
merits  flow  chiefly  from  confession,  self-humilia- 
tion, and  voluntary  ascetic  practices.  All  this  is  un- 
Pauline  enough;  but  it  moved  in  a  direction  that 
aroused  few  protests  till  the  Reformation  epoch. 

The  means  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  the 
divinely  instituted  rite  of  baptism,  by  which  "we 
are  set  free  into  eternal  life. "  It  can  be  received  but 
once,  though  a  martyr's  death  constitutes  for  him  an 
exceptional  and  effective  second  baptism;  and  hence 
so  precious  a  remedy  for  sin  is  not  to  be  lightly  used. 
To  TertuUian's  thinking,  children  and  the  unmarried 
should  postpone  it,  because  not  yet  fixed  in  char- 
acter.3  This  delay  of  baptism,  in  order  that  its 
benefit  might  extinguish  as  large  an  amount  of  one's 
total  accumulation  of  sins  as  possible,  was  nothing 

I  Repentance,  chap.  vi.  ^  Baptism,  chap.  xx. 

3  Ibid.,  passim. 


34     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

peculiar  to  Tertullian,  and  had  a  curious  illustra- 
tion, to  mention  a  single  instance,  in  the  case,  a 
century  later,  of  the  emperor  Constantine,  who 
postponed  the  rite  till  his  last  illness. 

But  sins  are  committed  after  baptism;  and  the 
attitude  of  the  church  toward  those  of  a  heinous 
nature  was  changing  in  Tertullian' s  time,  and  with 
it  the  conception  of  what  the  church  itself  is.  From 
New  Testament  days  the  church  had  been  looked 
upon  as  a  company  of  actual  disciples  of  Christ — 
as  "saints,"  though  still  imperfect — and  some  sins 
were  so  bad  as  to  bar  out  the  sinner  from  it  forever.' 
Murder,  apostasy,  and  adultery  were  looked  upon 
as  such  offenses;  and  Tertullian  clearly  states  the 
distinction  between  venial  and  deadly  sins  which 
was  thus  implied.*  For  severe  sins,  not  of  the  un- 
forgivable category,  however,  God  had  provided 
a  remedy  through  public  confession,  which  Tertul- 
lian calls  a  "second  reserve  of  aid  against  hell''^ — 
baptism  being  the  first;  but,  like  baptism,  it  was  to 
be  used  once  only;  it  was  the  last  hope.  Whether 
the  church  had  any  hope  to  offer  to  grievous  sinners, 
or  to  those  who  had  exhausted  their  repentance, 
was  in  dispute  in  Tertullian' s  time.  He  himself 
seems  in  his  earlier  period  to  have  inclined  to  the 
milder  view  that  God  might  have  some  mercy  even 

1  I  John  5:16;   Hebrews  6:4-6;  10:26. 

2  Modesty,  chap.  ii. 

3  Repentance,  chap.  xii. 


TERTULLIAN  35 

for  great  offenses;'  but  his  Montanistic  rigor  in  later 
life  disposed  him  to  the  earlier  severity.  TertuUian's 
final  tract,  On  Modesty,  was  a  biting  reproof  to 
Bishop  Calixtus  of  Rome  (217/8-222/3)  who  by  his 
own  fiat  had  declared  his  willingness  to  treat  adultery 
and  fornication  as  forgivable  sins,  after  which  the 
repentant  offender  could  be  restored  to  church  fellow- 
ship. 

This  high-handed  act  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
was  but  the  logical  outcome  of  the  feeling  that  had 
been  growing  in  the  church  that  the  officers  of  the 
congregation — above  all  its  bishop — were  its  organs 
in  judging  and  pronouncing  censure  and  restoration. 
In  Pauline  times  the  right  of  the  whole  congregation, 
it  came  naturally  to  be  exercised  through  the  executive 
officers.  But  Calixtus'  removal  of  these  offenses 
from  the  list  of  the  unforgivable  implied  a  change 
in  the  original  theory  of  the  church  itself — it  is  no 
longer  viewed  as  a  household  of  "saints,"  but  as  an 
agency  for  salvation.  Calixtus  himself  likened  it  to 
Noah's  Ark,  full  of  clean  and  unclean  beasts.  The 
two  conceptions  of  the  church  have  persisted,  and 
today  divide  Christendom.  Those  bodies  which 
insist  on  conscious  Christian  discipleship  as  the 
condition  of  membership  represent  the  older  view; 
while  those  communions,  which,  like  the  state 
churches,  reckon  all  who  have  been  baptized  as  of 
their  membership,  and  require  no  profession  of  a 

I  Ibid.,  chap,  viii;  written  between  198  and  203. 


S6     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

"change  of  heart,"  stand  essentially  on  the  inclusive 
basis  which  Calixtus  expressed.  Conservatives, 
like  the  Montanist  Tertullian,  might  protest;  but 
Calixtus  undoubtedly,  rather  than  he,  represented 
the  tendency  of  the  times.  His  theory  of  the  church 
explains  how  after  the  attitude  of  the  Roman  govern- 
ment had  been  changed,  a  century  later,  to  one  of 
favor  to  Christianity,  the  population  was  swept  by 
the  thousand  into  at  least  nominal  membership  in 
the  church. 

In  one  very  important  theological  doctrine 
Tertullian  coined  and  gave  significance  to  many  of 
the  later  phrases  employed  in  its  discussion — that  of 
the  Trinity.  The  word  itself  he  brought  into  its 
present  use.  Such  terms  as  one  "substance,"  in 
which  the  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit  alike  share,  as 
well  as  the  clear  distinction  between  the  divine  and 
the  human  in  Christ — who,  to  him,  is  God  and  man, 
joined  in  one  person  without  confusion — ^he  wrought 
out,  largely  by  the  light  afforded  by  Stoic  philosophy, 
for,  in  spite  of  his  contempt  for  philosophy,  he  made 
use  of  it  when  he  chose.  His  late  treatise  Against 
PraxeaSj  written  between  213  and  218,  was  the 
clearest  exposition  of  the  "Logos"  Christology  that 
had  yet  appeared,  and  not  only  gave  a  fixed  content 
to  many  of  the  Latin  terms  he  employed,  but  in 
many  respects  anticipated  the  Nicene  decision  of  a 
century  later  in  its  formulation  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity. 


TERTULLIAN  37 

Possibly  the  best  illustration,  however,  of  Tertul- 
lian's  fiery  nature,  his  mastery  of  invective,  and  no 
less  of  the  revolt  of  the  Christians  of  his  day  from  the 
brutalizing  public  spectacles  by  which  the  heathen 
population  was  amused  and  degraded,  and  of  their 
confidence  in  the  coming  triumph  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  may  be  drawn  from  a  pastoral  denunciation, 
written  before  he  became  a  Montanist.  The 
amusements  of  his  day  in  the  theater  were  often 
grossly  licentious,  while  those  of  the  gladiatorial 
amphitheater  were  cruel  in  the  extreme.  Both  ap- 
pealed to  the  crudest  and  lowest  passions  of  human 
nature.  Neither  was,  in  TertuUian's  judgment,  fit 
for  Christian  eyes.  But  he  went  much  farther  than 
mere  criticism.  He  was  evidently  goaded  by  heathen 
taunts.  Over  against  the  temporary  spectacles  of 
the  present  he  placed  the  vivid  reaHties  of  a  day 
of  judgment,  already  discerned  by  faith.  It  is, 
harshly  and  unsympathetically  indeed,  an  exhibition 
of  that  "other-worldHness"  with  which  these  de- 
spised Christians  comforted  themselves  amid  the 
sensuality,  cruelty,  and  hostility  about  them.  It 
speaks  the  fierce  longing,  natural  to  the  human 
heart,  for  a  day  of  vengeance  on  their  enemies. 

What^  a  spectacle  is  that  fast-approaching  advent  of  our 
Lord,  now  owned  by  all,  now  highly  exalted,  now  a  triumphant 
One!  What  that  exultation  of  the  angelic  hosts!  What  the 
glory  of  the  rising  saints!    What  the  kingdom  of  the  just 

I  De  spectacuUs,  chap.  xxx. 


SS     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

thereafter!  What  the  city  New  Jerusalem!  Yes,  and  there 
are  other  sights:  that  last  day  of  judgment,  with  its  everlasting 
issues;  that  day  unlooked  for  by  the  nations,  the  theme  of 
their  derision,  when  the  world  hoary  with  age  and  all  its  many 
products  shall  be  consumed  in  one  great  flame !  How  vast  a 
spectacle  then  bursts  upon  the  eye!  What  then  excites  my 
admiration?  What  my  derision?  Which  sight  gives  me 
joy?  Which  rouses  me  to  exultation? — as  I  see  so  many 
illustrious  monarchs,  whose  reception  into  the  heavens  was 
publicly  announced,^  groaning  now  in  the  lowest  darkness 
with  great  Jove  himself,  and  those,  too,  who  bore  witness  of 
their  exaltation;  governors  of  provinces,  too,  who  persecuted 
the  Christian  name,  in  fires  more  fierce  than  those  with  which 
in  the  days  of  their  pride  they  raged  against  the  followers  of 
Christ.  What  world's  wise  men  besides,  the  very  philoso- 
phers ....  now  covered  with  shame  before  the  poor  deluded 
ones,  as  one  fire  consumes  them!  Poets,  also,  trembling  not 
before  the  judgment-seat  of  Rhadamanthus  or  Minos,  but 
of  the  unexpected  Christ!  I  shall  have  a  better  opportunity 
then  of  hearing  the  tragedians,  louder-voiced  in  their  own 
calamity;  of  viewing  the  play-actors,  much  more  "dissolute" 
in  the  dissolving  flame;  of  looking  upon  the  charioteer,  all 
glowing  in  his  chariot  of  fire;  of  beholding  the  wrestlers,  not 
in  their  gymnasia,  but  tossing  in  the  fiery  billows;  unless  even 
then  I  shall  not  care  to  attend  to  such  ministers  of  sin,  in  my 
eager  wish  rather  to  fix  a  gaze  insatiable  on  those  whose  fury 
vented  itself  against  the  Lord.  "This,"  I  shall  say,  .... 
"This  is  He  whom  you  purchased  from  Judas!  This  is  He 
whom  you  struck  with  reed  and  fist,  whom  you  contemptu- 
ously spat  upon,  to  whom  you  gave  gall  and  vinegar  to  drink! " 
....  What  quaestor  or  priest  in  his  munificence^  will  bestow 
on  you  the  favor  of  seeing  and  exulting  in  such  things  as  these  ? 

I  Alluding  to  the  deification  of  deceased  emperors. 

a  I.  e.,  givers  of  public  gladiatorial  and  theatrical  shows, 


TERTULLIAN  39 

And  yet  even  now  we  in  a  measure  have  them  by  faith  in  the 
picturings  of  imagination. 

There  is  much  more  of  the  joy  of  future  triumph 
than  of  Christian  charity  in  this  vivid  picture;  but 
it  shows  us  the  strength  of  the  hope  in  which  Ter- 
tuUian  walked  and  did  his  strenuous  work. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  were  the  general  tendencies  manifest  in  the 
church  at  the  close  of  the  second  century  ? 

2.  Were  they  wholly  an  evil  ? 

3.  What  value  was  placed  on  the  churches  founded  by 
the  apostles  ?    Why  ? 

4.  What  was  the  significance  of  Irenaeus  ? 

5.  What  reaction  did  Montanism  represent?  Why  was 
it  natural  ?     Its  exaggerations  ? 

6.  What  was  TertuUian's  career  ? 

7.  What  was  TertuUian's  significance  in  the  development 
of  a  Latin  Christian  literature?  The  characteristics  of  his 
style  ?    His  writings  ? 

8.  What  was  TertuUian's  conception  of  the  relations  of 
Christianity  to  philosophy  ? 

9.  How  far  should  a  Christian  seek  truth?  Where  can 
he  find  it  ? 

10.  What  emphasis  does  Tertullian  lay  on  sin  and  grace  ? 

11.  What  was  the  value  attached  to  baptism  in  his  day? 

12.  What  two  theories  of  the  church  were  then  in 
contest  ? 

13.  What  was  TertuUian's  contribution  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  ? 

14.  How  did  he  triumph  over  present  ills  in  the  hope  of  the 
coming  of  Christ  in  judgment  ? 


40     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

F.  W.  Farrar,  Lives  of  the  Fathers  (New  York,  1889),  I,  118- 

84. 
Philip  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (New  York, 

1889),  II,  818-34. 
A.  H.  Newman,  A  Maniml  of  Church  History  (Philadelphia, 

1900),  I,  257-65. 


ATHANASIUS 


Ill 

ATHANASIUS 

The  epoch  from  the  death  of  TertulHan  to  the  rise 
into  prominence  of  Athanasius — practically  a  cen- 
tury— was  one  of  tremendous  changes  in  the  Chris- 
tian church.  It  had  to  pass  through  the  two  greatest 
persecutions  which  it  experienced,  that  under  Decius, 
250,  which  was  renewed  from  257  to  260  by  Valerian, 
and  that  begun  in  303  by  Diocletian.  These  perse- 
cutions were  what  none  had  been  before.  They 
were  systematic,  extensive,  and  persistent  attempts  to 
crush  out  Christianity  by  men  of  principle  who  were 
convinced  that  the  evils  from  which  the  Empire  suffered 
were  due  to  the  refusal  of  Christians  to  worship  the 
old  gods  under  whom  these  persecutors  beHeved 
that  Rome  had  grown  great.  They  involved  many 
martyrdoms.  They  led  to  thousands  of  denials  of 
the  faith.  When  those  who  in  their  terror  had  ab- 
jured their  faith  sought  readmission  to  the  church, 
great  divisions  arose  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued. 
A  considerable  party,  the  Novatian  at  Rome  after 
the  Decian  persecution,  and  that  of  the  Donatists  in 
Africa  after  that  of  Diocletian,  would,  in  accordance 
with  the  older  rigor,  bar  them  from  the  church ;  but 
the  majority  in  each  instance  favored  their  read- 
mission,  if  repentant,   and  thus  a  second  class  of 

43 


44     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

offenses  was  removed  from  the  list  of  unforgivable 
sins.^ 

In  spite  of  these  fearful  trials,  however,  the  church 
grew  mightily,  especially  as  it  was  favored  by  almost 
absolute  peace  between  the  persecutions.  By  the 
close  of  the  third  century  it  was  vastly  more  numer- 
ous than  in  the  days  of  Tertullian.  Moreover, 
Christianity,  in  the  third  century,  was  extending 
rapidly  into  the  higher  classes  of  society.  It  was 
gaining  intensively  as  well  as  extensively;  at  the 
same  time  its  exclusiveness  was  breaking  down; 
and  it  was,  undoubtedly,  making  many  compromises 
with  the  world  that  the  first  or  even  the  second 
century  would  have  rejected.  Though  average 
Christian  morality  was  less  exacting,  the  ascetic  life 
was  increasingly  looked  upon  as  the  ideal,  and  a 
double  standard  of  Christian  living  was  growing  up 
that  was  to  have  influence  for  centuries — in  fact  in 
some  branches  of  the  church  to  the  present  day. 
While  the  requirements  binding  on  the  ordinary 
Christian  were  comparatively  low,  he  who  would 
lead  the  holier  life  must  be  much  more  strenuous. 
The  way  was  thus  preparing  for  demands  upon  the 
clergy  not  required  of  the  ordinary  believer,  and  for 
the  rise  of  monasticism,  the  rapid  spread  of  which 
was  to  be  such  a  feature  of  the  fourth  century.  The 
combined  influence  of  heathen  worship  and  of  Old 

I  The  first  was  that  of  imchastity  under  Calixtus.  See  ante, 
P-  35- 


ATHANASIUS  45 

Testament  example  had  changed  the  conception  of 
the  ministry  into  a  priesthood ;  and,  by  the  middle 
of  the  third  century,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  looked 
upon,  well-nigh  universally,  as  a  sacrifice  made  by 
the  priest  to  God — the  mass.  It  had  become,  at 
least  a  century  earlier  than  that,  the  central  and 
most  sacred  part  of  the  service.  By  the  middle  of  the 
third  century,  also,  the  importance  always  attached 
to  the  great  churches  of  the  capital  cities,  especially 
those  of  apostolic  association,  was  giving  them  a 
metropolitan  authority  over  their  districts.  This 
was  notably  the  case  with  Rome,  Antioch,  and  Alex- 
andria, whose  bishops  were  regarded  as  the  chief 
men  in  the  Christian  church.  To  such  a  writer  as 
Cyprian,  bishop  of  Carthage  from  248  or  249  to  his 
martyrdom  in  258,  salvation  outside  the  visible 
church  is  impossible,  and  that  church  is  built  on  the 
unity  of  its  bishops,  of  whom  the  highest  in  honor  is 
the  bishop  of  Rome.  The  church  was  thus  a  close- 
knit,  visible  imperium  in  imperio. 

During  the  third  century,  also,  theology  took  on 
a  notable  development,  especially  in  the  school  of 
Alexandria,  under  Clement  of  Alexandria,  who 
flourished  in  the  last  decade  of  the  second  century 
and  the  first  years  of  the  third ;  and  especially  under 
his  great  pupil,  Origen,  who  labored  as  a  teacher 
and  even  more  as  a  writer  from  203  to  his  death  in 
251.  In  Origen  the  oriental  church  had  its  greatest 
theologian,  and  Christianity  as  a  whole  one  of  its  pro- 


46     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

foundest  interpreters.  In  absolute  opposition  to 
Tertullian  he  viewed  philosophy  as  a  true  guide  in 
the  development  and  systematizing  of  the  simple 
elements  of  the  popular  creed  which  embodied  the 
Christian  revelation ;  and  by  its  means  he  constructed 
an  immense  edifice  of  speculation  which  profoundly 
influenced  subsequent  thought  and  may  be  said  to 
have  completed  the  union  of  Christian  truth  with  the 
best  that  the  ancient  Greek  civilization  had  to  offer 
into  one  intellectually  imposing  system.  It  was  a 
marvelous  interpretation  of  Christianity  in  the  light 
of  the  knowledge  of  that  epoch ;  but  the  process  has 
to  be  repeated  with  every  advance  of  knowledge,  and 
Origen's  work  was  so  fully  the  creation  of  his  own 
age  that  its  value  is  relatively  slight  for  our  own. 
It  dominated  the  theological  thought  of  the  oriental 
church  in  the  centuries  that  immediately  succeeded 
him,  however;  though  the  lesser  men  who  followed 
him  were  inclined  to  judge  him  more  heretical  than 
orthodox. 

Greatest  of  all  external  changes  in  the  fortunes 
of  Christianity  were  its  recognition  by  the  state,  the 
consequent  cessation  of  all  serious  opposition,  and 
the  positive  and  powerful  aid  of  the  imperial  govern- 
ment which  came  to  it  in  the  second  decade  of  the 
fourth  century.  The  proportion  of  Christians  to 
the  total  population  of  the  Empire  is  impossible 
of  estimation.  They  were  very  unequally  distrib- 
uted in  its  various  provinces.     But  in  the  central 


ATHANASIUS  47 

provinces  which  possessed  political  leadership  the 
church  was  undoubtedly  very  strong,  and  the  perse- 
cution begun  by  Diocletian  not  only  failed  to  crush 
it,  but  showed  by  the  popular  apathy  that  the  old 
opposition  to  Christianity  had  largely  vanished. 
The  church  was  a  political  force  which  a  clever  politi- 
cian, especially  one  in  some  degree  of  sympathy  with 
its  principles,  could  use  in  a  struggle  to  obtain  mastery 
of  the  Roman  world.  Such  a  far-sighted  politician 
was  Constantine,  and  his  victory  over  his  rival 
Maxentius,  just  outside  of  Rome  in  October,  312, 
to  which  he  had  marched  as  a  Christian  champion, 
and  with  soldiers  bearing  the  symbol  of  the  cross,  was 
followed  at  the  beginning  of  313  by  the  publication 
at  Milan,  of  a  joint  edict  by  Constantine  and  Licinius, 
the  ruler  of  a  large  part  of  the  East  and  then  Con- 
stantine's  supporter.  By  this  edict  universal  tolera- 
tion was  granted.  It  was  no  exclusive  establishment 
of  Christianity,  but  it  granted  to  Christians  full 
rights;  and  the  hearty  personal  support  which  Chris- 
tians received  from  Constantine  made  Christianity 
practically  the  most  favored  religion.  By  324 
Constantine  was  sole  ruler  of  the  Empire.  His 
legislation  constantly  favored  the  church,  and  its 
numbers  now  grew  enormously  with  the  incoming, 
not  merely  of  genuine  converts,  but  of  that  great 
class  which  always  desires  to  be  on  the  winning  side. 
To  Constantine' s  statesman-like  mind  the  support 
of  Christianity  seems  to  have  appeared  the  comple- 


48     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

tion  of  the  great  process  of  unification  which  had 
been  working  for  centuries  in  the  Empire.  It  had 
long  had  one  law,  one  citizenship,  and,  in  theory  at 
least,  one  ruler.  It  was  but  a  further  step  in  the 
same  direction  that  it  should  have  one  religion. 

This  unity  was  at  once  threatened  by  a  serious 
dispute  in  the  church  itself,  the  focus  of  which  was 
Alexandria,  the  largest  city  of  Egypt,  though  the 
roots  of  the  quarrel  were  ancient,  and  its  ramifica- 
tions widespread.  It  had  to  do  with  the  most  funda- 
mental problem  of  Christianity — the  nature  of  Christ 
himself.  The  first  disciples  had  recognized  in  Christ 
a  revelation  of  God,  without  asking  much  about  his 
relations  to  the  Father.  Matthew's  Gospel  records 
his  declaration  that  "no  man  knoweth  the  Son  but 
the  Father;  neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father 
save  the  Son."^  The  three  earliest  evangehsts 
show  that  His  claim  to  forgive  sins  was  regarded  by 
those  who  heard  him  as  an  exercise  of  divine  author- 
ity.^ Luke  shows  that  he  held  himself  superior  to 
the  most  sacred  parts  of  that  Jewish  law  which  his 
contemporaries  believed  to  be  God-given. ^  Paul 
views  prayer  to  Him  as  a  universal  Christian  prac- 
tice.'^ But  the  need  of  explanation  of  his  divinity 
was  early  felt;  and  the  New  Testament  presents 
three  interpretations,  not  necessarily  mutually  exclu- 

I  Matt.  11:27. 

a  Matt.  9:2,  3;   Mark  2:5-7;   Luke  5:20-24. 

3  Luke  6:5.  4  I  Cor.  1:2 


ATHANASIUS  49 

sive,  but  still  explanations  of  the  how  of  the  great 
fact  which  the  early  disciples  experienced — his  en- 
dowment with  the  divine  Spirit/  his  virgin  birth,' 
and  his  pre-existence.^  These  were  not  philosophi- 
cal interpretations,  however,  and  the  second  century- 
was  busy  with  its  speculations.  Gnosticism,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  its  theories.  In  the  church  itself, 
the  "Logos"  Christology,  which  looked  upon  Christ 
as  the  personal  embodiment  of  the  divine  activity 
in  the  world,  flowing  out  from  God,  one  with  him,  yet 
in  some  real  sense  distinct  from  the  Father — the 
"Word" — had  the  largest  following.  There  were, 
however,  not  a  few  in  the  second  and  third  centuries 
who  rejected  the  Logos  Christology,  and  were 
called  "  Monarchians. "  Of  these  some  insisted 
that  there  was  no  real  distinction  between  Christ 
and  the  Father,  and  that  the  Father  suffered  on  the 
cross.  Such  was  Sabellius,  who  flourished  at  Rome 
from  about  215,  and  taught  that  the  Father,  Son, 
and  Spirit  were  but  various  forms  in  which  the  one 
God  had  manifested  himself.  Other  Monarchians 
viewed  Christ  simply  as  one  peculiarly  filled  with  the 
Spirit  of  God,  and  hence  Son  of  God  by  adop- 
tion. But,  thanks  to  the  work  of  Tertullian,  of 
Novatian  at  Rome  {ca.  251),  and  of  the  Roman 
bishop,  Dionysius,  {ca.  260),  the  Logos  doctrine,  and 

I  E.  g.,  Mark  1:9-12, 

a  E.  g.,  Matt.  1:18-25;   Luke  1:34,  35. 

3  E.  g.,  John  1:1;   Col.  1:15-17. 


50     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  conception  that  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  while 
one  in  substance,  were  yet  distinct  in  person — a  real 
Trinity — won  practically  complete  control  of  the 
West.  The  East  was  not  so  united.  It  was  far 
deeper  and  more  speculative  in  its  thought  than  the 
West,  where  the  primary  interests,  as  befitted  the 
Latin  spirit,  were  practical. 

But  within  the  victorious  Logos  Christology  it 
was  possible  to  hold  at  least  two  views  as  to  Christ's 
relations  to  the  Father,  and  out  of  these  the  great  con- 
troversy was  to  come.  One  of  them  was  championed 
by  Arius,  probably  a  Libian  by  birth,  who  had  been 
trained  in  Antioch,  and  who  when  he  comes  to  prom- 
inence in  the  controversy  was  well  on  in  years,  and 
in  high  repute  as  pastor  of  the  church  called  Baucalis 
in  the  Egyptian  capital,  Alexandria.  To  Arius' 
thinking  Christ  is  the  highest  of  all  created  beings. 
The  chief  of  all  creatures,  he  is  still  a  creature;  and, 
as  compared  with  God  who  made  him,  inferior, 
limited,  and  secondary.  Though  God's  agent  in 
creating  the  world,  and  therefore  earlier  than  it, 
he  was  not  eternal.  "There  was  when  he  was 
not."  In  his  birth  on  earth  this  secondary  God 
took  to  himself  merely  a  human  body,  of  which 
he  constituted  the  soul.  Christ  was,  therefore, 
to  Arius,  neither  fully  God  nor  perfect  man, 
but  a  being  intermediate  between  the  two.  The 
view  was  essentially  polytheistic,  and  asserted 
the    existence    of    two    Gods — one    high,    perfect, 


ATHANASIUS  5 1 

and  remote,  the  other  near,  created,  limited,  and 
inferior. 

These  opinions  were  in  opposition  to  those  of 
Arius'  ecclesiastical  superior,  Alexander,  bishop  of 
Alexandria  from  311  to  326,  who  represented  the 
other  interpretation  to  which  reference  has  been 
made.  How  fully  Alexander  had  worked  out  his 
own  views  it  is  difficult  to  say ;  but  it  is  plain  that  he 
emphasized  the  unity  of  Christ  with  the  Father. 
Apparently  Arius  criticized  his  position  publicly 
about  318;  and,  about  320,  Alexander  called  a 
synod  by  which  Arius  was  excommunicated.  Far 
from  accepting  this  condemnation,  Arius  found 
support,  notably  in  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Nicomedia, 
the  ablest  politician  in  the  eastern  episcopate,  and  in 
Palestine.  The  quarrel  at  once  assumed  large 
proportions,  and  Constantine,  whose  political  ideals 
determined  his  religious  policy,  and  whose  prime 
thought  was  unity  in  church  and  state,  found  him- 
self confronted  by  a  bitter  dispute  in  the  church  to 
which  he  had  so  recently  given  freedom.  After 
trying  in  vain  to  bring  Arius  and  Alexander  to  agree- 
ment through  the  agency  of  his  ecclesiastical  adviser, 
Hosius,  bishop  of  Cordova  in  Spain,  the  puzzled 
emperor  now  called  the  first  general  coimcil  of  the 
church  to  meet  in  Nicaea,  near  Constantinople,  in 
May,  325.  Local  synods  had  been  frequently  held 
since  the  Montanist  dispute  raged  in  Asia  Minor  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  second  century;   but  now  for 


52     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  first  time  the  whole  church  was  invited — and 
invited  by  the  head  of  the  Roman  Empire — to  send 
its  bishops  for  deliberation.  About  three  hundred 
answered  the  call.  Entertained  at  imperial  expense, 
and  enjoying  the  presence  and  largely  the  guidance 
of  the  emperor  himself,  it  was  indeed  a  splendid 
gathering,  and  it  has  lived  in  tradition  as  the  most 
sacred  of  all  the  councils  of  the  church. 

Though  professedly  a  deliberative  body,  the 
council  was  largely  determined  in  its  action  by  the 
emperor,  probably  less  by  his  direct  intervention, 
though  that  was  exercised,  than  by  the  natural 
glamor  of  his  presence  in  a  body  representative  of 
a  church  which  had  so  recently  come  forth  from 
persecution  largely  through  his  aid.  Constantine's 
policy  was  simple.  He  was  no  expert  theologian. 
He  wished  peace  and  unity.  He  saw  that  the 
majority  of  the  council,  which  was  almost  wholly 
from  the  eastern  portion  of  the  Empire,  were  un- 
learned men  who  had  no  definite  convictions  on  the 
more  difficult  aspects  of  the  question  at  issue,  and 
therefore  would  be  swayed  by  one  or  the  other  of  the 
parties  to  which  the  question  was  vital,  that  of  Arius 
and  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  or  that  of  Alexander. 
His  own  training  in  the  western  portion  of  the 
Empire,  and  the  views  of  his  trusted  friend.  Bishop 
Hosius  of  Cordova,  inclined  him  to  the  side  of  Alex- 
ander, which  accorded  with  the  feeling  of  the  West 
generally.     Constantine   threw   the   weight   of   his 


ATHANASIUS  53 

influence  against  Arius,  who  was  promptly  con- 
demned. The  creed  of  the  church  of  Caesarea  in 
Palestine  was  adopted  with  the  insertion  of  the  anti- 
Arian  declarations  that  Christ  is  "of  the  substance 
of  the  Father,"  "begotten  not  made,  of  one  sub- 
stance (ofioova-Lov)  with  the  Father."  The  Greek 
word  just  quoted  became  henceforth  the  battle-flag 
of  the  Nicene  faith.  The  powerful  influence  of 
Constantine,  coupled  with  threats  of  banishment, 
secured  the  signatures  of  all  bishops  save  two;  and 
the  council  dissolved,  having,  it  was  believed,  given 
the  desired  peace  to  the  church. 

The  majority  at  Nicaea  had,  however,  been  sur- 
prised and  led  rather  than  convinced.  The  real 
battle  was  after  rather  than  at  the  council.  The 
council  was  brief,  the  battle  lasted  more  than  half 
a  century.  Its  hero  was  Athanasius,  to  whose 
efforts  the  permanent  victory  of  the  Nicene  faith 
was  primarily  due.  Born,  probably  in  Alexandria, 
about  293,  he  became  a  deacon  under  Bishop  Alex- 
ander, and  that  prelate's  hearty  supporter,  possibly 
his  amanuensis.  He  was  present  in  Nicaea  during 
the  council,  though  of  course,  being  not  yet  a  bishop, 
he  was  not  one  of  its  official  members.  While  his 
influence  there,  such  as  it  was,  was  exercised  in  favor 
of  the  result  reached,  it  was  in  no  sense  a  deciding 
factor.  But,  with  Athanasius'  promotion  to  the 
see  of  Alexandria  on  the  death  of  Alexander,  in  326, 
his  leadership  became  incontestible,  and  till  his  own 


54     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

demise,  in  373,  he  was  the  foremost  figure  in  the 
struggle.  A  thinker  of  clearness,  rather  than  an 
original  theologian,  he  adopted  the  Nicene  decision 
as  his  own  and  was  admirably  fitted  to  represent  a 
great  party.  His  enthusiasm,  his  steadfastness  of 
purpose,  his  unbending  and  high-minded  resolution 
to  yield  nothing,  made  him  the  commanding  leader 
of  his  century  and  a  permanent  force  in  the  history 
of  Christian  thought. 

Athanasius'  impulse  was  far  more  religious  than 
philosophical.  To  his  thinking,  Christ  is  the  full 
manifestation  of  the  one  God,  eternal,  subordinate 
in  office  to  the  Father,  yet  forever  one  with  him  in 
nature.  In  the  incarnation  the  one  God  was  united 
with  a  perfect  and  complete  manhood,  so  that  Christ 
is  at  the  same  time  fully  God  and  fully  man.  There 
is  no  far-off  God,  remote  from  the  world  which  he 
has  made,  but  God  himself  has  revealed  himself  in 
the  incarnation  to  men. 

These  may  seem  remote  matters  of  speculation; 
but  in  the  existent  state  of  Christian  thought  they 
were  not.  The  ancient  world  was  in  real  danger  of 
putting  God  a  great  way  off,  of  so  emphasizing  his 
transcendence  as  to  separate  him  by  a  vast  gulf  from 
his  creatures.  That  Arius  did;  and  with  many  the 
Logos  Christology,  which  makes  Christ  a  divine 
agent  of  the  one  God,  had  that  effect  in  spite  of  its 
assertion  of  Christ's  divine  character.  To  Athana- 
sius the  "Son"  rather  than  the  Logos  or  "Word" 


ATHANASIUS  55 

was  always  Christ's  chief  title.  Only  as  God  is 
shown  to  be  active,  sympathizing  with  man's  need, 
sacrificing  himself  for  man's  sins,  really  uniting  men 
to  himself,  present  in  his  world,  is  a  real  salvation 
possible.  So  Athanasius  conceived  the  matter;  and 
he  was  right,  however  completely  our  modern  age 
has  discarded  the  philosophic  garb  of  that  time  in 
which  he  clothed  his  thoughts.  His  fundamental 
contention  is  forever  true.  No  intermediate  being, 
however  gifted,  could  really  reveal  God  to  men  or 
effect  that  reconciliation  and  union  of  men  with 
God  by  which  alone  salvation  is  possible. 

Athanasius  entered  on  his  bishopric  in  326. 
There  was  need  for  his  firmness  at  once.  The  de- 
feated party  at  Nicaea  had  an  able  leader  in  the 
pohtically  skilful  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  who  soon 
won  favor  with  Constantine.  To  many  of  those  who 
had  belonged  to  the  great  undecided  middle  body 
of  the  council  the  result  arrived  at  in  Nicaea  seemed 
one-sided  and  Sabellian.  A  reaction  soon  set  in. 
By  Eusebius'  maneuvers  the  emperor  was  persuaded 
that  Arius  was  not  as  bad  as  he  had  been  painted. 
Constantine  did  not  in  any  way  become  an  Arian; 
but  Arius  now  laid  before  him  a  brief  and  vague 
confession  of  faith  that  seemed  to  the  untheological 
mind  of  the  emperor  not  only  orthodox  but  indicative 
of  a  willingness  to  end  the  dispute.  What  seemed 
enough  to  the  emperor,  Constantine  naturally  thought 
ought  to  satisfy  Athanasius;  and  as  Athanasius  still 


56     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

opposed  Arius'  restoration,  Constantine  was  at  last 
persuaded  by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  though  with 
difficulty,  that,  after  all,  Athanasius'  obstinacy,  and 
the  tyranny  with  which  he  was  falsely  charged,  were 
the  roots  of  the  quarrel,  and  that  a  period  of  exile 
would  bring  him  to  terms.  So  Constantine  banished 
Athanasius  to  Trier,  in  Germany,  late  in  335;  and 
so  successful  were  Arius'  friends  that  he  was  about 
to  be  restored  to  the  church  when  he  died  in  336. 

Constantine's  own  demise,  in  337,  found  Athana- 
sius still  in  exile,  and  that  death  brought  a  marked 
strengthening  of  the  anti-Athanasian  party.  The 
great  emperor  had  tried  in  an  unsuccessful  way  to 
make  peace.  Of  his  sons,  Constantius,  who  received 
the  eastern  portion  of  the  Empire,  was  under  the 
influence  of  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  whom  he  made 
bishop  of  his  capital,  Constantinople,  in  338.  To 
Constantine  II  and  to  Constans  came  the  rulership 
of  the  West,  which  the  death  of  Constantine  II,  in 
340,  soon  placed  wholly  in  Constans'  hands.  Unlike 
his  brother,  Constantius,  Constans  favored  Athana- 
sius, and,  like  the  region  of  which  he  was  the  ruler, 
supported  the  Nicene  decision.  The  reign  of  the 
three  emperors  was  begun,  however,  by  the  recall  of 
all  who  had  been  banished  by  Constantine,  and  thus, 
before  the  end  of  337,  Athanasius  was  once  more  in 
friendly  Alexandria.  His  peace  was  not  long  undis- 
turbed, however.  Early  in  339,  a  synod  of  his 
enemies   at   Antioch    ordered   his   deposition.     He 


ATHANASIUS  57 

was  driven  by  force  from  Alexandria,  and  fled  to 
Rome,  a  new  bishop  was  put  in  his  place,  and  his 
second  exile,  which  was  to  last  till  October,  346,  was 
begun. 

Then  followed  a  period  of  great  interest,  not  merely 
in  the  life  of  Athanasius,  but  of  high  importance  in 
the  development  of  the  papacy  as  well  as  in  the 
progress  of  the  Nicene  struggle.  Both  the  Eusebian 
party  and  Athanasius  appealed  to  Bishop  Julius  of 
Rome  (337-52),  an  exceedingly  skilful  and  states- 
man-like pontiff,  who  saw  in  the  situation  an  oppor- 
tunity not  merely  to  aid  the  side  which  he  believed 
right  but  to  advance  papal  authority.  By  Julius, 
Athanasius  was  heartily  welcomed  and  declared 
orthodox.  The  situation  between  Rome  and  Con- 
stantinople was  strained  in  the  extreme;  but  now 
the  emperor  Constans,  largely  at  the  insistence  of 
the  aged  Hosius  of  Cordova,  persuaded  his  brother 
Constantius  to  join  with  him  in  the  summons  of  a 
new  designedly  general  council,  to  meet  in  343  at 
Sardica,  now  Sofia  in  Bulgaria.  On  its  assembly 
it  was  evident  that  the  western  bishops,  in  sym- 
pathy with  Nicene  views,  were  in  the  majority,  and 
the  Eusebian  party  therefore  withdrew  in  anger 
because  Athanasius  and  his  friends  who  were  present 
were  received  in  fellowship  by  that  majority.  On 
the  departure  of  the  Eusebians,  the  remaining 
bishops  pronounced  in  favor  of  Athanasius,  and,  in  a 
famous  series  of  rules,  authorized  the  Bishop  of 


58     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Rome,  when  appealed  to  by  bishops  who  deemed 
themselves  unjustly  deposed,  to  examine  into  the 
cases  and  cause  them  to  be  reopened.  This  was  of 
course  a  party  decision,  unrecognized  by  the  Euse- 
bians,  and  favorable  to  Athanasius  and  his  friends; 
but  it  became  a  precedent  for  many  later  papal 
claims. 

Unfavorable  as  the  situation  seemed,  a  change 
came  in  Athanasius'  favor,  when,  in  346,  Constantius, 
moved  by  Constans'  urgency,  recalled  him  to  Alex- 
andria. The  second  exile  was  ended,  and  for  ten 
years  Athanasius  was  in  possession  of  his  bishopric. 
But  his  hardest  trial  was  yet  to  come.  The  death  of 
the  friendly  Constans  in  350  left  Constantius  sole 
master  of  the  Roman  world,  and  with  his  exclusive 
rulership  the  anti-Nicene  party  which  he  favored  was 
of  course  strengthened.  By  355  the  emperor  and 
his  ecclesiastical  friends  were  so  dominant  in  the 
West  that  at  a  great  synod  held  in  Milan  in  Italy 
Athanasius  and  his  supporters  were  condemned 
by  the  western  bishops  there  gathered;  and  those 
who  then  or  soon  after  opposed  this  forced  decision, 
like  Bishop  Liberius  of  Rome  and  other  leaders  of 
the  West,  were  sent  into  exile.  Soldiers  were  em- 
ployed to  seize  Athanasius  in  Alexandria.  He 
escaped  with  difficulty  in  February,  356,  but  he  was 
now  an  Egyptian  national  hero,  and  in  this  third 
exile  (356-62)  found  protection  in  defiance  of  the 
imperial  power  in  the  deserts  of  his  native  land. 


ATHANASIUS  59 

Much  of  this  protection  came  from  the  monks,  for 
monasticism  was  growing  rapidly  in  Egypt,  and 
found  in  Athanasius  its  first  eager  supporter  in  high 
ecclesiastical  position,  and  its  earnest  advocate. 

The  defeat  of  the  Nicene  party,  of  which  Athana- 
sius was  the  head,  seemed  now  complete;  but  the 
anti-Nicene  opposition  was  made  up  of  very  diverse 
elements,  and  with  its  victory  it  divided  into  factions. 
The  old  middle  party  of  Eusebius,  who  had  died  in 
341,  now  developed  a  conservative  wing  that,  while 
not  ready  to  say  with  the  Nicene  creed  that  Christ 
was  of  one  substance  with  the  Father,  would  yet 
approach  it  far  enough  to  declare  that  they  were  of 
the  same  attributes  {ofxoiovaiov).  Its  radical  wing, 
on  the  other  hand,  asserted  the  old  Arian  position 
that  Christ  was  of  other  substance  than  the  Father. 
Constantius  tried  to  compromise  by  rejecting  all 
forms  of  the  word  "substance"  as  unscriptural,  and 
holding  that  Christ  is  ''like"  the  Father,  "in  all 
things  as  the  Scriptures  teach,"  which  was  really 
avoiding  the  questions  at  issue;  but  the  result  was 
that  the  Athanasians  and  the  conservative  Eusebians 
came  constantly  nearer  together,  and  the  Athana- 
sian  cause  was  greatly  strengthened  by  these  divi- 
sions of  its  opponents. 

In  361  the-  emperor  Constantius  died,  and  was 
succeeded  by  the  last  heathen  that  sat  on  the  Roman 
throne,  Julian,  misnamed  "the  Apostate."  Anxious 
to   aid  heathenism  by  increasing  the   quarrels  of 


6o     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Christians,  Julian  called  home  all  banished  bishops; 
and  in  362,  Athanasius  was  once  more  in  Alexandria. 
But  before  the  year  was  out,  angered  by  Athanasius' 
opposition  to  heathenism,  Julian  sent  him  into  his 
fourth  exile,  which  lasted  this  time  till  364,  and  was 
spent,  as  his  third  had  been,  under  the  protection  of 
his  Egyptian  sympathizers. 

On  Julian's  early  death  in  363,  Christian  emperors 
succeeded,  though  till  the  advent  of  Theodosius,  in 
379,  they  were,  like  Constantius,  anti-Nicene  in 
sympathies.  But  Athanasius'  party  constantly  grew, 
aided  as  it  was  by  powerful  men  of  a  younger  genera- 
tion, notably  Basil  the  Great,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  and 
Gregory  of  Nazianzen.  A  fifth  exile  came  to  the 
aged  Athanasius  for  a  few  weeks,  late  in  365,  when 
the  emperor  Valens  banished  all  bishops  whom 
Constantius  had  driven  from  their  sees.  But  from 
366  to  his  death  on  May  7,  373,  at  the  age  of  about 
eighty,  Athanasius  remained  in  quiet  possession  of 
the  bishopric  which  he  had  so  long  held,  and  from 
which  he  had  been  so  often  expelled.  The  full 
triumph  of  his  cause  he  did  not  live  to  see.  That 
was  not  to  come  till  the  Spanish-born  emperor 
Theodosius  put  all  the  weight  of  imperial  pohtics 
as  firmly  and  as  ruthlessly  on  the  Nicene  side,  as 
ever  Constantius  had  supported  its  opponents. 
But  even  his  power  could  not  have  won  the  ground 
permanently  for  the  Nicene  cause  had  it  not  been 
for  the  long  work  of  Athanasius.     The  courage, 


ATHANASIUS  6i 

persistence,  and  conviction  with  which  he  had  fought 
his  battle  won  victory  in  the  end.  Whether  Athana- 
sius'  spirit  was  always  that  of  his  Lord  may  well 
be  doubted,  but  none  can  question  his  heroism,  or 
the  depth  of  the  religious  conviction  which  animated 
him  in  the  long  struggle.  It  is  no  less  evident  that 
the  interference  of  the  Christian  emperors  was  a 
source  of  great  evil  to  the  church.  In  the  existing 
state  of  the  Empire  that  interference  was  unavoid- 
able, but  it  made  every  theological  question  a  political 
problem,  it  led  to  the  use  of  very  carnal  weapons 
of  controversy,  and  it  turned  Christian  interest 
largely  from  matters  of  life  and  conduct  to  bitter 
wranglings  over  points  of  doctrine.  Yet  in  the  large 
retrospect  we  may  be  grateful  that  Athanasius  did 
his  work  so  well,  and  that  the  outcome  of  the  struggle 
was  what  it  was. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  When  were  the  great  persecutions  and  what  problems 
did  they  raise  ? 

2.  What  changes  in  the  conceptions  of  Christian  Hfe  and 
worship  took  place  in  the  third  century  ? 

3.  Who  was  Origen  and  what  was  his  significance  ? 

4.  How  did  Constantine  come  to  embrace  Christianity 
and  what  was  the  effect  of  his  conversion  ? 

5.  With  what  great  dispute  was  Constantine  confronted? 

6.  What  were  some  of  the  views  regarding  Christ's  rela- 
tion to  the  Father  which  had  been  previously  held  in  the 
church  ? 

7.  Who  was  Arius,  and  what  were  his  views  ? 


62     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

8.  How  did  Arius  and  Alexander  of  Alexandria  differ  ? 

9.  What  was  the  occasion  and  significance  of  the  Council 
of  Nicaea  ?    Did  it  end  the  dispute  ? 

10.  What  was  the  early  history  of  Athanasius  ?  Why  did 
the  controversy  seem  to  him  of  great  religious  significance  ? 

11.  How  did  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  regard  the  result 
at  Nicaea  ?  What  was  the  position  and  what  the  influence  of 
the  emperor  Constantius  ? 

12.  How  many  times  was  Athanasius  exiled?  Some  of 
the  circumstances  ? 

13.  What  was  the  significance  of  the  Council  of  Sardica  ? 

14.  What  was  the  outcome  of  the  Nicene  struggle?  In 
how  far  and  how  did  Athanasius  contribute  to  the  result  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

F.  W.  Farrar,  Lives  of  the  Fathers  (New  York,  1889),  I,  331- 

425- 
Philip  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (New  York, 

1884),  III,  616-88,  884-93. 
H.  M.  Gwatkin,  The  Arian  Controversy  (New  York,  no  date) 

("Epochs  of  Church  History"  SeriesV 


AUGUSTINE 


IV 

AUGUSTINE 

The  contests  in  which  Athanasius  was  engaged, 
though  arousing  interest  in  the  western  portions  of 
the  Empire,  and  involving  its  leaders,  were  primarily 
eastern.  The  western  mind  was  more  practical,  the 
eastern  more  speculative.  In  the  East  the  discus- 
sions begun  regarding  the  person  of  Christ  long  con- 
tinued. The  Nicene  view  of  divinity  united  to 
humanity  was  everywhere  accepted;  but,  granted 
that,  the  further  question  arose  as  to  how  the  divine 
and  the  human  were  joined  in  Christ's  person.  As 
the  result  of  the  discussion  of  this  problem  in  em- 
bittered quarrels,  it  was  decreed  by  the  Council 
in  Chalcedon,  near  Constantinople,  in  451,  that 
Christ  is  "known  in  two  natures,  without  confusion, 
without  conversion,  without  severance,  and  without 
division,"  that  is,  that  in  the  one  person  of  Our 
Lord  two  complete  natures,  one  human,  the  other 
divine,  are  united.  Curiously  enough,  though  inter- 
est in  the  debate  was  primarily  eastern,  the  words  of 
the  Chalcedonian  decision  were  borrowed  almost 
wholly  from  a  letter  of  the  greatest  of  the  early 
Roman  bishops,  Leo  I  (440-61). 

With  this  decision  the  East  exhausted  about  all 
that  it  had   to  contribute  to   the  development  of 

65 


66     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Christian  doctrine.  That  this  was  the  case  was 
largely  due  to  its  conception  of  the  nature  of  salvation. 
As  already  pointed  out  in  speaking  of  Irenaeus,^  it 
viewed  fallen  man  as  having  lost  his  unity  with  God, 
and  as  hence  incapable  of  a  joyful  immortality. 
Only  by  the  union  of  God  with  men  was  a  true  im- 
mortality possible  for  the  Christian.  Hence  the 
stress  which  the  East  laid  on  the  real  union  of  God 
and  man  in  Christ.  Only  by  that  union  was  spiritual 
death  overcome  and  life  and  happy  immortality 
brought  to  light.  Emphasizing  thus  the  victory 
over  death  as  the  prime  thing  in  salvation,  the  East 
had  little  sense  of  sin  and  of  its  consequent  guilt. 
The  question  of  how  guilty  men  might  be  made 
right  with  God  had  comparatively  little  interest  for 
the  East.  Its  problem  was  how  mortal  men  might 
be  made  immortal. 

To  the  western  mind  the  problem  of  guilt  was  the 
more  pressing.  Its  prime  interest  was  how  sinful 
men  could  be  made  righteous,  and  the  consequences 
of  their  sins  overcome.  Hence  the  West  showed  an 
interest,  never  developed  in  the  East,  in  the  nature 
of  man  and  the  way  of  his  reconciliation  with  God. 
This  enabled  the  West  to  make  a  real  advance  in 
theology  over  the  East,  and  gave  its  thinking  a  prac- 
tical value,  consonant  with  the  legal  and  practical, 
but  relatively  unspeculative,  western  mind.  It  has 
its  highest  illustration  in  the  greatest  of  western 

I  Ante,  p.  26. 


AUGUSTINE  67 

theologians — probably  the  greatest  theologian  of  all 
the  early  church — Augustine. 

Of  all  the  leaders  of  the  ancient  church,  we  know 
Augustine  most  fully.  Thanks  to  the  facts  recorded 
in  his  writings,  especially  in  his  Confessions  and 
Retractions,  and  to  a  Lije  written  by  his  intimate 
friend.  Bishop  Possidius  of  Calama,  we  are  able  to 
follow  his  spiritual  development  and  his  contro- 
versies in  all  their  phases,  to  know  the  circumstances 
of  his  conversion,  and  to  appreciate  his  relations  to 
his  age.  We  can  give  the  exact  dates  of  his  birth 
and  death — a  definiteness  of  knowledge  not  to  be  at- 
tained regarding  any  other  great  character  of  the  early 
church.  We  can  follow  most  of  his  experiences  and 
become  acquainted  with  his  friends  and  opponents. 

Augustine  was  born  on  November  13,  354,  under 
the  reign  of  Constantius,  in  Tagaste,  a  little  town  in 
what  was  then  the  flourishing  North  African  province 
of  Numidia,  in  the  region  now  known  as  Algeria. 
His  father,  Patricius,  was  an  easy-going  heathen  of 
good  position,  but  small  property;  his  mother, 
Monnica,  a  Christian  of  eager  ambition  for  her  son, 
who  had  the  highest  reverence  for  her,  although  she 
was  in  his  younger  years  of  rather  external  and 
superficial  piety.  As  he  was  a  boy  of  promise,  the 
family,  in  spite  of  its  limited  resources,  was  deter- 
mined to  give  Augustine  the  best  education  that  the 
time  afforded,  and,  accordingly,  he  was  sent  to  school 
first  in  the  neighboring  Madaura,  and  then  in  the 


68     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

North  African  capital,  Carthage,  where  Tertullian 
and  Cyprian  had  labored.  Here,  in  Carthage,  if 
not  earlier,  he  gave  way  to  the  sensual  temptations 
which  the  age  and  heathen  traditions  pressed  upon 
him;  but  though  he  paints  his  lapses  in  the  most 
abhorrent  colors  in  the  pitiless  self-condemnation  of 
the  Confessions,  they  did  not  wholly  dominate  him, 
and  he  acquired  repute  as  a  brilliant  and  earnest 
student.  Here  at  Carthage,  when  about  seventeen, 
he  entered  into  a  kind  of  partial  marriage — a  rela- 
tion of  concubinage  then  legal  and  not  wholly  con- 
demned by  the  church,  but  severable  at  will — to 
which  he  remained  faithful  for  the  next  fifteen  years, 
and  from  which  a  son,  Adeodatus,  to  whom  he  was 
devoted,  was  early  born.  Undoubtedly,  however, 
sensuality  was  the  form  of  temptation  to  which  the 
youthful  Augustine  felt  himself  most  exposed,  and 
this  defiling  experience  colored  his  later  conceptions 
of  the  nature  of  sin,  and  marked  the  depth  of  the 
degradation  from  which  he  felt  himself  rescued  by 
divine  grace. 

His  higher  nature,  however,  constantly  asserted 
itself.  A  lost  treatise  of  Cicero,  the  Hortensius, 
which  came  into  his  hands  when  in  his  nineteenth 
year,  convinced  him  intellectually  that  truth  must  be 
the  object  of  his  search — a  determination  that  was 
thenceforth  masterful  in  his  Hfe.  But  the  old  temp- 
tations still  assailed,  and  like  Paul,^  though  in  a 

I  Romans  7 :  14-24. 


AUGUSTINE  69 

different  way,  he  felt  that  two  natures,  a  higher 
and  a  lower,  were  struggling  in  him  with  varying 
success  for  the  mastery.  In  this  contest  he  turned 
to  the  Bible;  but  as  yet  it  did  not  speak  to  his  heart. 
To  the  rhetorical  taste  of  the  young  student  its  style 
seemed  barbarous,  and  he  now  revolted  from  Chris- 
tianity of  which  he  had  been  thus  far  nominally  an 
adherent. 

The  form  of  faith  to  which  Augustine  now  turned 
was  Manichaeanism,  then  widespread,  in  spite  of 
persecution,  in  the  Roman  Empire,  and  one  pecu- 
liarly appealing  to  a  man  like  Augustine,  who  felt 
two  tendencies  at  warfare  within  him.  Mani,  its 
founder,  had  taught  in  Persia,  and  had  there  met  a 
martyr's  death  by  crucifixion  in  276  or  277.  His 
system  combined  Zoroastrian,  Hindu,  Gnostic,  and 
Christian  elements;  the  fundamental  basis  being 
the  thought  that  the  universe  is  the  scene  of  the 
eternal  conflict  of  two  powers,  the  one  good,  the  other 
evil.  Man,  as  we  know  him,  is  a  mixed  product, 
the  spiritual  part  of  his  nature  being  made  of  the 
good  element,  the  physical  of  the  evil.  His  task  is 
therefore  to  free  the  good  in  him  from  the  evil;  and 
this  can  be  accomplished  by  prayer,  but  especially 
by  abstinence  from  all  the  enjoyments  of  evil,  riches, 
lust,  wine,  meats,  handsome  houses,  and  the  like. 
The  true  spiritual  Jesus,  as  with  the  Gnostics,  had 
no  material  body,  and  died  no  real  death.  His 
purpose  was  to  teach  men  the  way  from  the  kingdom 


70     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  darkness  to  that  of  light.  Like  the  Gnostics,  the 
Manichaeans  held  that  much  of  the  New  Testament 
is  true,  but  they  rejected  all  in  it  that  seemed  to 
imply  Christ's  real  sufferings,  and  they  discarded  the 
Old  Testament  altogether.  Their  adherents  were 
divided  into  two  classes,  the  "perfect,"  who  lived  a 
strict  Hfe  of  ascetic  self-denial,  and  the  "hearers," 
who  were  still  allowed  to  marry,  to  trade,  and  in 
many  ways  to  conform  to  the  world. 

Augustine  remained  an  eager  Manichaean  for  nine 
years,  from  374  to  383;  but  dissatisfaction  with 
its  teachings  at  last  arose  in  his  mind,  especially 
under  the  influence  of  the  most  spiritual  of  the 
philosophical  systems  of  the  ancient  world,  that  of 
neo-Platonism.  As  a  Manichaean,  however,  he 
taught  grammar  in  his  native  Tagaste,  and  rhetoric 
in  Carthage,  and  though  inwardly  doubting  the 
truth  of  this  system,  it  was  at  the  suggestion  of 
Manichaean  friends,  that  he  removed  to  Rome  in 
383.  Not  long  after  his  arrival  in  the  capital  he 
secured  from  the  prefect,  Symmachus,  a  professor- 
ship in  the  State  University  in  Milan  (384);  and 
thither  he  was  followed  by  his  widowed  mother, 
and  some  of  his  African  friends,  for  his  was  always 
an  attractive  personahty.  He  was  now  thirty  years 
old,  in  established  position  in  life,  and  with  every 
prospect  of  worldly  success;  but  he  was  more  than 
ever  deeply  dissatisfied  with  his  life.  He  separated 
from  his  faithful  concubine  that  he  might  become 


AUGUSTINE  71 

betrothed  to  a  young  woman  of  wealth  and  posi- 
tion; but  he  could  not  master  his  sensual  nature,  and 
the  conflict  became  increasingly  distressing  to  him. 
With  his  residence  in  Milan,  however,  he  came  un- 
der the  powerful  preaching  of  Ambrose,  whom  he 
first  heard  as  an  illustration  of  pulpit  eloquence,  but 
whose  message  soon  impressed  his  soul,  and  un- 
doubtedly developed  into  noble  fruitage  his  mother's 
spiritual  life. 

Ambrose  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of 
the  age.  The  son  of  a  high  officer  of  the  government, 
and  himself  destined  for  political  life,  he  came  to 
Milan  as  governor  of  northern  Italy,  probably  in  373, 
and  the  next  year,  in  spite  of  his  want  even  of  baptism, 
was  chosen  by  the  people  of  the  city  as  their  bishop. 
From  the  first  he  looked  upon  the  call  as  that  of  God. 
No  greater  administrator,  no  more  effective  preacher, 
no  more  devoted  pastor  than  he  was  to  be  found  in 
that  age.  He  dared  to  rebuke  the  great  emperor, 
Theodosius,  when  that  ruler  sinned,  yet  with  such 
evident  honesty  of  purpose  as  not  merely  to  bring 
the  imperial  offender  to  repentance  but  to  secure  his 
lasting  friendship.  To  be  brought  in  contact  with 
such  a  man  as  Ambrose  was  of  immense  value  to  the 
inwardly  distressed  Augustine. 

Yet  the  immediate  occasion  of  Augustine's  con- 
version seems  to  have  been,  as  so  often  in  Christian 
history,  personal  example.  He  consulted  Simpli- 
cianus,  a  friend  of  Ambrose,  who  told  him  of  the 


72     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

religious  transformation  of  the  rhetorician,  Vic- 
torinus,  by  whose  writings  Augustine  had  been 
introduced  to  neo-Platonism.  A  fellow-African, 
Pontitianus,  described  the  life  of  the  Egyptian  monks 
with  its  rejection  of  the  temptations  of  the  world. 
Augustine  felt  a  burning  sense  of  shame  that  these 
unlearned  men  could  win  spiritual  battles  in  which 
he,  with  all  his  education,  felt  only  defeat.  His 
sense  of  sin  and  of  his  own  powerlessness  was  pro- 
foundly stirred;  and,  as  he  walked  in  agony  in  his 
garden,  he  heard  a  child's  voice  saying,  ''Take  and 
read."  Instantly  he  picked  up  a  New  Testament, 
and  the  words  on  which  his  eyes  fell  were  suited 
perhaps  above  all  others  to  his  mood :  "  Not  in  rioting 
and  drunkenness,  not  in  chambering  and  wantonness, 
not  in  strife  and  envying;  but  put  ye  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the  flesh 
to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof."'  As  Augustine  himself 
recorded,  "Instantly,  as  I  reached  the  end  of  this 
sentence,  it  was  as  if  the  light  of  peace  was  poured 
into  my  heart,  and  all  the  shades  of  doubt  faded 
away."^ 

On  the  eve  of  the  following  Easter,  387,  Augus- 
tine, with  his  son,  Adeodatus,  and  his  friend,  Alypius, 
was  baptized  by  Ambrose  in  Milan.  A  few  months 
later  he  set  out  for  Africa,  but  on  the  journey  his 
mother  died  in  Ostia,  and  the  narrative  of  her  con- 

X  Romans   13:13,  14. 

a  Confessions,  Book  VIII,  chap.  xii. 


AUGUSTINE  73 

versations  and  her  death,  as  recorded  by  Augustine, 
is  one  of  the  noblest  monuments  of  Christian  experi- 
ence.^ By  the  autumn  of  388,  he  was  once  more 
settled  in  Tagaste,  and  about  this  time  the  death  of 
his  son  added  to  the  grief  already  experienced  in  the 
loss  of  his  mother.  Of  his  experiences  till  his 
mother's  death  he  wrote,  between  397  and  400,  a 
most  remarkable  description  in  his  Confessions — 
an  unsurpassed  spiritual  autobiography,  in  which  he 
endeavored  to  show  the  greatness  of  the  divine  work 
by  which  he  had  been  rescued  from  his  sins  and 
made  one  of  the  children  of  God. 

Augustine  had  been  greatly  impressed,  in  con- 
nection with  his  conversion,  with  monasticism,  and 
an  opportunity  came  to  him  in  391  to  share  in  found- 
ing a  monastic  establishment  in  Hippo,  now  Bona — 
a  monastery  that  was  not  merely  the  first  in  that  part 
of  Africa,  but  served  also  as  a  ministerial  training 
school.  Here  in  Hippo,  in  391,  by  popular  insistence 
and  against  his  will,  Augustine  was  ordained  a  priest ; 
and,  in  395,  on  the  wish  of  Bishop  Valerius,  he  was 
chosen  assistant  bishop  of  that  see.  When  he  suc- 
ceeded to  the  full  bishopric  of  Hippo  is  unknown,  but 
for  thirty-five  years,  till  his  death  on  August  28,  430^ 
during  the  siege  of  the  city  by  the  Vandals,  he  was 
practically  its  ecclesiastical  head.  As  an  administra- 
tor he  was  distinguished  for  his  simplicity  in  food 
and  dress,  his  encouragement  of  good  morals  and 

I  Ibid.,  Book  IX,  chaps,  x  and  xi. 


74     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

education  among  the  clergy,  his  advocacy  of  mo- 
nasticism,  and  his  abilities  as  a  preacher.  But  his 
fame  as  a  theologian  was  now  widespread  throughout 
the  Empire,  and  was  to  be  his  most  eminent  claim  to 
remembrance. 

Augustine's  abundant  discussion  touched  most  of 
the  aspects  of  the  theology  and  philosophy  of  his  age. 
Beyond  any  other  teacher  of  the  ancient  church,  sub- 
sequent to  the  apostolic  age,  he  influenced  the  religious 
thought  of  western  Christendom  not  merely  through- 
out the  Middle  Ages  but  even  more  powerfully  at  the 
Reformation  when  his  conceptions  of  Christian  truth 
largely  determined  the  form  in  which  the  theology  of 
that  great  revolt  was  cast.  There  were  two  distinct, 
and  to  some  extent  irreconcilable,  aspects  to  his  think- 
ing, however,  so  that  if  he  is  the  spiritual  father  of 
Protestant  theology,  the  characteristic  contentions  of 
mediaeval  Catholicism  could  also  find  in  him  their 
most  powerful  exponent.  If  his  doctrines  of  grace, 
of  sin,  and  of  predestination  largely  furnished  the 
ammunition  of  the  reformers,  his  conceptions  of  the 
church,  of  the  sacraments,  and  of  monasticism  were 
no  less  influential  upon  their  Roman  predecessors 
and  opponents. 

Augustine's  chief  contests  were  with  his  old  asso- 
ciates the  Manichaeans  (388-405) ;  against  the  Dona- 
tists,  who,  starting  as  a  protest  against  easy  treatment 
of  those  who  had  been  unfaithful  in  the  Diocletian 
persecution,  divided  all  North  Africa  into  warring 


AUGUSTINE  75 

factions,  alike  in  all  other  beliefs,  but  each  declaring 
the  other  no  true  church  (393-420) ;  against  the  Pela- 
gians, of  whom  more  will  be  said  (412-428);  and 
against  the  Arians,  especially  in  his  treatise  on  the 
Trinity  of  about  416.  But  as  it  is  impossible  to  de- 
scribe these  contests  in  any  detail  in  the  space  at 
command,  but  three  important  aspects  of  Augustine's 
thought  will  now  be  mentioned  as  illustrative  of  his 
profound  influence  on  his  own  and  subsequent  ages. 
Augustine  worked  out  his  doctrine  of  the  church 
largely  in  his  disputes  with  the  Donatists.  Ortho- 
dox as  they  were  in  belief,  yet  opposing  the  church 
of  the  Empire,  he  had  to  show  to  his  own  satisfaction 
that  they  were  not  a  part  of  the  true  church.  That 
only  is  the  church,  he  held,  which  has  faith,  hope,  and 
love;  but  love  can  only  be  the  possession  of  the  one 
visible  and  universal  church.  Hence  not  only  could 
there  be^  no  real  church  but  the  one  Catholic  body; 
there  is  no  salvation  outside  of  it,  for  without  all  the 
three  Christian  virtues  of  faith,  hope,  and  love  none 
can  be  saved.  The  bonds  which  unite  the  church, 
the  signs  which  distinguish  it  visibly,  are  the  sacra- 
ments, which,  though  possessed  by  others,  are  of  value 
only  in  the  one  Catholic  church  to  which  alone  the 
name  church  rightly  belongs.  To  the  divine  opera- 
tion of  the  sacraments  and  the  grace  conferred  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  through  them,  the  holiness  of  the  church 
is  due ;  and  they  are  divinely  placed  in  the  charge  of 
the  properly  ordained  clergy.     Hence  the  clergy  are 


76     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  indispensable  element  in  the  membership  of  the 
church.  Yet  while  Augustine  thus  advocated  views  of 
the  church  which  were  to  come  to  full  development  in 
mediaeval  Roman  Catholicism,  his  own  conception  of 
its  membership  or  of  the  sacraments  was  not  always 
clear.  The  bestowment  of  grace  is  not  inseparably 
bound  to  the  reception  of  the  sacraments.  He  spoke 
of  the  visible  church  sometimes  as  a  mixed  company 
of  good  and  bad ;  but  he  sometimes,  also,  approached 
the  definition  of  the  church  as  really  the  good  only, 
whom  God  alone  can  distinguish  in  the  visible  body  on 
earth — that  is,  he  was  not  far  at  times  from  that  con- 
ception of  the  invisible  church  as  the  only  true  church 
which  was  to  spring  into  such  power  at  the  Reformation. 
Augustine's  conceptions  of  sin  and  grace  grew 
largely  out  of  his  own  experience,  and  were  developed 
in  their  leading  features  before  the  Pelagian  contro- 
versy, though  that  discussion  brought  them  to  full 
expression.  The  Apologists  like  Justin  Martyr  had 
emphasized  man's  freedom  to  do  right  or  wrong,  and 
that  conception  had  prevailed,  especially  in  the 
Greek-speaking  portion  of  the  church.  Pelagius,  a 
British,  or  less  probably  an  Irish,  monk,  who  had 
lived  long  in  Rome,  carried  these  thoughts  to  sharper 
expression.  He  denied  that  sin  is  inherited  from 
Adam.  Man  still  has  freedom  by  nature  to  act 
righteously  or  sinfully.  Nor  is  death  a  consequence 
of  Adam's  transgression.  Adam,  indeed,  introduced 
sin  into  the  world,  his  corrupting  example  spread  it 


AUGUSTINE  77 

to  his  posterity.  Almost  all  the  human  race  have 
sinned ;  but  it  is  possible  not  to  sin,  and  some  have 
not.  God  predestinates  none,  save  in  the  sense  that 
he  foresees  who  will  believe  and  who  will  reject  his 
gracious  influences.  His  forgiveness  comes  to  all 
who  exercise  ''faith  alone;"  and  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  no  one  between  Paul  and  Luther  so  empha- 
sized ''faith  alone"  as  the  condition  of  salvation  as 
did  Pelagius.  But,  once  forgiven,  man  has  power 
of  himself  to  live  a  Hfe  pleasing  to  God,  and  Pelagius 
makes  relatively  little  of  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
His  ideal  of  the  Christian  life  is  rather  the  Stoic  con- 
ception of  ascetic  self-control. 

All  this  was  contrary  to  the  views  which  Augus- 
tine's experience  had  wrought  in  him.  His  sense  of  V 
the  depth  of  his  sin  was  profound,  and  hence  his  con- 
ception of  the  greatness  of  salvation  needed  was  cor- 
respondingly exalted.  He  felt  that  nothing  less  than 
irresistible  divine  power  could  have  saved  him  from 
the  slough  of  sin  in  which  he  was  till  his  conversion, 
and  only  constantly  inflowing  divine  grace  could 
keep  him  in  the  Christian  life,  the  essence  of  which  is 
not  Stoic  self-control,  but  love  for  righteousness  in- 
fused by  the  constant  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
As  Augustine  studied  the  Scriptures,  especially  the 
Pauline  epistles,  he  believed  his  experience  confirmed. 

In  Augustine's  view  all  that  God  has  made  is  in 
itself  good.  The  first  man,  Adam,  was  created  a 
holy,  happy,  and  harmoniously  constituted  being. 


78     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

He  had  the  possibility  of  not  sinning,  and,  had  he 
refused  to  sin,  the  practice  of  righteousness  would 
have  become  a  habit,  and  the  possibility  of  not  sin- 
ning would  have  become  a  moral  impossibility  to 
sin.  Instead,  Adam,  who  had  free  will,  sinned,  and 
ruin  was  the  result.  The  harmony  which  kept  the 
body  subject  to  the  soul  was  broken.  The  body 
asserted  itself  in  passions,  of  which,  to  Augustine's 
thinking,  the  most  characteristic  is  lust.  His  mental 
faculties  were  clouded.  His  vision  of  God  lost. 
His  power  to  do  right  gone.  In  a  word,  Adam  died, 
spiritually;  and  soon  physically.  But  he  was  not 
alone  in  his  ruin.  On  the  basis  of  a  mistranslation 
of  Romans  5:12,  Augustine  taught  that  all  the  race 
was  in  Adam  and  shared  his  fall.  It  all  became  a 
"mass  of  corruption,"  incapable  of  itself  of  any  good 
act,  and  deserving,  in  each  of  its  members  from 
earliest  infancy  to  old  age,  nothing  but  damnation. 
Since  man  can  now  do  nothing  good  himself,  aU 
impulse  or  power  to  do  good  must  be  the  free  gift  of 
God,  must  be,  that  is,  a  ''  grace. "  Out  of  the  mass 
of  the  fallen  race  God  chooses  some  to  receive  grace, 
which  comes  to  them  from  the  work  of  Christ, 
through  the  church,  and  especially  through  its  sacra- 
ments. All  who  receive  baptism  receive  regenerat- 
ing grace.  Such  grace  is  irresistible.  It  gives  man 
back  his  freedom  to  serve  God,  though  that  service 
is  imperfect  even  in  the  best,  and  is  maintained  only 
by  the  constant  incoming  of  divine  aid.     Those  to 


AUGUSTINE  79 

whom  God  does  not  send  his  grace  are  lost.  Nor 
can  any  man  be  sure,  even  if  he  now  enjoys  God's 
grace,  that  he  will  be  saved.  Only  he  to  whom  God 
gives  the  added  grace  of  perseverance,  that  is,  who 
has  divine  aid  to  the  end  of  his  Hfe,  will  be  redeemed. 
Man,  therefore,  has  no  power  or  worthiness  of  him- 
self; all  his  salvation  is  of  God.  The  principal  effect  f 
of  grace,  according  to  Augustine,  is  not,  however,/ 
forgiveness  of  sins,  though  that  is  one  of  its  conse- 
quences, but  the  building-up  of  a  righteous  character, 
through  the  infusion  of  love  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  That 
character  God  rewards.  He  treats  it  as  meritorious 
in  us,  though  its  creation  is  wholly  his  work. 

About  410  Pelagius,  with  his  disciple,  Caelestius, 
came  from  Rome  to  North  Africa.  There  Caeles- 
tius tried  to  secure  ordination  as  a  priest;  but  was 
rejected  and  his  views  condemned  at  a  synod  in 
Carthage,  at  which  Augustine  was  not  present,  in 
411.  He  then  went  to  the  East,  whither  Pelagius 
had  preceded  him,  and  where  they  had  a  fairly 
friendly  reception.  Augustine  now  came  forth  as 
their  opponent  in  a  strenuous  literary  warfare, 
reinforced  by  the  efforts  of  his  friends  with  other 
weapons.  In  416  Pelagius  was  condemned  by 
African  synods  in  Carthage  and  Mileve,  and  Pope 
Innocent  I  approved  the  decision.  His  successor, 
Zosimus,  at  first  looked  leniently  on  Pelagius  and 
Caelestius,  but  a  general  rallying  of  the  Augustinian 
forces  led  to  a  change  of  view,  and  by  the  spring 


8o     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  418,  Zosimus  was  on  Augustine's  side.  In  419 
the  Pelagians  were  banished  by  the  emperor, 
Honorius,  and,  in  431,  Pelagianism  was  con- 
demned by  the  General  Council  of  the  church 
in  Ephesus.  Thus  Augustine's  view  triumphed 
officially;  but  there  have  never  been  wanting  many 
who  have  held  essentially  the  position  of  Pelagius. 
It  is  easy  to  see,  however,  that,  though  Augustine 
bound  the  reception  of  "grace"  to  membership  in 
the  visible  church,  his  doctrine  that  God  chooses 
whom  he  will  and  gives  them  power  to  serve  him, 
makes  salvation  a  matter  between  God  and  the  in- 
dividual soul,  and  was,  therefore,  a  doctrine  capable 
of  becoming,  as  at  the  Reformation,  a  tower  of 
strength  to  those  who  denied  that  any  body  of  men, 
of  whatever  claims  to  be  a  church,  could  come  be- 
tween the  soul  and  its  Maker. 

A  third  characteristic  of  Augustine,  of  far-reach- 
ing influence,  was  his  mysticism,  or  perhaps  it  is 
better  to  say  his  spiritual-mindedness.  To  him  God 
is  the  end  and  object  of  man's  love,  and  even  of  man's 
existence.  "Thou  has  formed  us  for  thyself,  and 
our  hearts  are  restless  till  they  find  rest  in  thee, "  he 
exclaims  in  his  Confessions."-  But  the  world  he  views 
no  less  from  a  spiritual  standpoint.  The  time  in 
which  he  lived  was  peculiarly  an  age  of  apparent 
ruin.  The  Roman  Empire  was  visibly  collapsing. 
Rome  itself  was  captured  by  the  Goths  in  410.    And 

I  Book  I,  chap.  i. 


AUGUSTINE  8i 

the  remaining  heathen  were  not  tardy  with  their 
shallow  explanation  of  this  apparent  downfall  of 
civilization.  When  Rome  worshiped  the  old  gods, 
they  said,  it  conquered  the  world.  Now  Christianity 
has  turned  men  away  from  the  deities  to  whom  Rome 
owed  her  strength,  and  the  barbarians  plunder  the 
city  itself.  To  these  criticisms,  and  to  the  fears  of  the 
Christians  themselves,  Augustine  replied  in  his  noble 
City  o]  God,  or  more  truly  "  Kingdom  of  God,"  writ- 
ten between  412  and  426,  and  presenting  his  spiritual 
philosophy  of  history.  Two  kingdoms,  one  that  of 
God,  the  other  that  of  the  world,  have  existed  always 
side  by  side.  The  former  owes  its  life  to  the  grace 
of  God,  the  latter  is  necessitated  by  man's  sin.  The 
one  is  spiritual,  the  other  temporal.  While  sin  exists 
the  temporal  kingdom  has  its  use  in  repressing  crime 
and  maintaining  peace ;  but  as  the  spiritual  kingdom 
grows  the  temporal  must  diminish.  The  highest 
illustration  of  the  kingdom  of  the  world  was  the 
empire  of  heathen  Rome,  but  its  passing  is  no  evil. 
On  the  contrary,  it  must  decline  that  the  Kingdom 
of  God  may  more  and  more  come.  The  grandeur 
of  this  spiritual  vision  made  the  City  of  God  the  most 
beloved  of  Augustine's  works  throughout  the  early 
Middle  Ages.  It  gave  a  spiritual  interpretation  to 
the  woes  from  which  the  world  suffered.  The  pres- 
ent might  be  bad,  but  better  is  to  come.  The  golden 
age — the  Kingdom  of  God — is  in  the  future,  not  in 
the  fading  splendors  of  a  worldly  kingdom  that  could 


A 


82     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

but  be  temporal.  Yet,  as  Augustine  practically  iden- 
tified the  Kingdom  of  God  with  the  visible  church,  his 
doctrine  greatly  aided  the  growth  of  the  conception 
that  the  church  should  rule  the  state  which  the  medi- 
aeval papacy  was  to  carry  to  such  heights. 

The  modern  world  has  departed  in  many  respects 
from  Augustine,  but  no  man  since  the  apostolic  age 
has  been  more  influential  as  a  Christian  example  or 
as  a  Christian  thinker  than  he. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  How  did  eastern  and  western  Christianity  differ  in 
intellectual  tendencies  ? 

2.  How  is  our  knowledge  of  Augustine  greater  than  our 
acquaintance  with  most  of  the  leaders  of  the  early  church  ? 

3.  Describe  Augustine's  early  life,  his  temptations,  and  his 
ideals. 

4.  What  was  Manichaeanism  ?  Why  did  Augustine  become 
a  Manichaean  ?     How  long  was  he  one  ? 

5.  Who  was  Ambrose? 

6.  Give  an  account  of  Augustine's  conversion.  Its  central 
experience  ? 

7.  Outline  Augustine's  later  life. 

8.  What  was  the  extent  of  Augustine's  influence  as  a  leader 
of  Christian  thought  ?     What  were  his  chief  controversies  ? 

9.  What  was  Augustine's  view  of  the  church  ?  Its  defects  ? 
Its  influence  on  mediaeval  Roman  Catholicism  ? 

10.  What  influence  had  Augustine's  experience  on  his  views 
of  sin  and  grace  ? 

11.  Who  was  Pelagius  and  what  was  his  theory  of  sin  and 
salvation?  What  importance  did  he  attach  to  justification 
by  faith  alone  ? 

12.  What  was  Augustine's  view  of  the  origin  of  sin?    Of 


AUGUSTINE  83 

the  relation  of  men  to  Adam  ?     Of  the  extent  of  human  sin- 
fulness ? 

13.  Who,  according  to  Augustine,  are  saved,  and  how  are 
they  saved  ?  What  importance  had  his  views  in  the  Reforma- 
tion age  ? 

14.  What  influence  had  Augustine's  mysticism?  His 
theory  of  history  as  set  forth  in  his  City  of  God?  Its  occasion 
and  influence  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 
F.  W.  Farrar,  Lives  of  the  Fathers  (New  York,  1889),  11,  298- 

459- 
Philip  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (New  York, 

1884),  III,  783-870,  988-1028. 
Joseph  McCabe,  St.  Augustine  and  His  Age  (New  York, 

1903)- 


PATRICK 


V 

PATRICK 

The  Christian  leaders  thus  far  considered  labored 
in  the  populous  cities  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Rome, 
Alexandria,  Carthage — all  centers  of  government,  of 
education,  and  of  culture — were  the  scenes  of  a  large 
part  at  least  of  their  activities.  Patrick's  chief  work 
was  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Roman  state,  in  an 
age  when  the  institutions  of  civilization  seemed  col- 
lapsing, among  a  rude  people,  and  on  the  remote 
frontiers  of  the  then  known  world.  The  men  who 
have  attracted  our  attention  were  all  of  conspicuous 
scholarship,  who  moved  their  own  time  and  after-ages 
by  what  they  wrote.  Patrick  was  by  his  own  declara- 
tion uneducated.  But  two  brief  writings  of  his  com- 
position have  survived.  They  are  not  treatises  on 
deep  problems  of  the  Christian  faith.  He  could  not 
have  discussed  such  matters  had  he  wished.  He  left 
only  a  crudely  written  account  of  what  God  had 
wrought  through  him  (his  Confession) ;  and  an  indig- 
nant pastoral  protest  against  the  capture  of  men  and 
women  of  his  flock  by  a  British  chieftain  (the  Letter 
to  Coroticus).  His  own  life  was  so  obscure  that  his 
very  existence  has  been  doubted;  and  competent 
scholars  have  most  variously  estimated  the  extent  and 
significance  of  his  work."     Yet  Christianity  has  been 

I  All  earlier  literature  regarding  Patrick  has  been  superseded 
by  the  recent  studies  of  Professors  Zimmer  and  Bury.     Professoi 

87 


S8     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

advanced  by  men  of  lowly  capacities  and  attainments, 
as  well  as  by  those  of  education  and  high  station; 
and  a  consideration  of  Patrick  may  exhibit  the 
forces  by  which  it  has  made  progress  as  truly  as  a 
study  of  Athanasius  or  of  Augustine. 

In  Roman  days  what  are  now  England,  Ireland, 
and  Scotland  were  inhabited  by  Kelts,  of  whom  the 
Irish,  the  Highlanders  of  Scotland,  and  the  Welsh 
are  now  the  representatives.  Though  divided  into 
two  main  language  groups,  the  Irish-Scotch  and  the 
British,  they  were  similar  in  original  habits  of  thought 
and  intercommunication  was  easy.  Roman  arms, 
however,  subdued  only  what  is  now  England  and 
southern  Scotland,  with  the  result  that  a  considerable 
degree  of  Roman  culture  was  introduced  into  the 
conquered  portions,  while  the  rest  largely  remained 
in  their  primitive  state.  In  the  Roman  section  the 
church  at  length  obtained  a  footing;  but,  as  in  the 
northwestern  part  of  the  Empire  generally,  it  was 
feebly  represented  till  after  the  conversion  of  Con- 
stantine.   Bishops  of  London,  York,  and  Lincoln  were 

Zimmer  (Realencyklopddie  }ilr  protestantische  Theologie  und 
Kirche,  3d.  ed.,  X,  204-21,  translated  into  English  as  The  Celtic 
Church  in  Britain  and  Ireland,  1902)  minimizes  his  significance, 
and  regards  him  as  identical  with  Palladius,  of  which  more  will 
be  said.  Professor  Bury  {The  Life  of  St.  Patrick  and  His  Place 
in  History,  1905)  has  answered  Zimmer,  in  the  main  successfully, 
and  has  shown  the  real  importance  of  Patrick's  work.  He 
attempts,  less  successfully,  to  distil -.guish  Patrick  from  Palladius. 
The  writer  would  acknowledge  his  large  indebtedness  to  both  of 
these  scholars. 


PATRICK  89 

present,  however,  at  the  Synod  of  Aries  in  314,  and 
Christianity  seems  to  have  grown  rapidly  in  Britain, 
as  in  the  other  western  regions  of  the  Empire,  during 
the  fourth  century.  In  estimating  the  intellectual 
state  of  British  Christianity  one  recalls  that  Pelagius 
was  from  that  land. 

With  the  collapse  of  the  Roman  power  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  the  civilization  of 
Britain  rapidly  deteriorated,  and  the  invasions  of  the 
Saxons  drove  the  older  inhabitants  largely  to  the 
more  mountainous  western  portion  of  England,  and 
so  extensively  reintroduced  heathenism  that,  while 
Christianity  did  not  absolutely  perish,  most  of  the 
land  became  missionary  territory.  But  before  the 
Saxon  conquest  had  widely  extended — certainly  by 
the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  fifth  century  (401- 
25) — Christianity  had  begun  to  reach  out  from  Ro- 
man Britain  into  Scotland  and  Ireland.  This  growth 
was  doubtless  aided  by  the  ease  of  communication 
where  speech  was  so  similar,  and  in  Ireland  especially 
by  the  settlement  of  Irish  in  southwestern  England. 
There  was  therefore  a  considerable  degree  of  Christi- 
anity in  Ireland  before  Patrick  began  his  work,  and 
he  cannot  be  called  "the  Apostle  of  Ireland"  in  the 
sense  that  he  introduced  Christianity  into  a  wholly 
heathen  country.  Yet  the  land  was  in  a  very  rude 
stage  of  civilization,  divided  into  tribes  ruled  over  by 
petty  chieftains,  whom  it  is  almost  absurd  to  desig- 
nate by  the  name  of  kings.     Some  of  these  "kings" 


90     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

were  subject  to  others,  and  all  were  under  the  over- 
lordship  of  the  "high  king"  whose  seat  was  at  Tara, 
northwestward  of  Dublin.  Irish  Christianity  was  in 
an  unorganized  state,  and  undoubtedly  very  much 
heathenism  still  existed  at  the  time  Patrick  began  his 
work. 

Like  that  of  Augustine,  though  in  much  humbler 
surroundings,  the  story  of  Patrick's  awakening  to  his 
mission  in  life  is  that  of  a  transformation  wrought  in 
him  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Born  about  389,  in  a  vil- 
lage called  Bannaventa,  probably  in  the  region  of 
southwestern  England  near  the  river  Severn,  but  not 
yet  identified  with  even  approximate  assurance,  he 
was  by  race  a  Briton.  His  father  was  a  man  of 
some  local  distinction,  a  municipal  councilor  (de- 
curion),  Calpurnius  by  name.  His  grandfather,  Po- 
titus,  had  been  a  priest.  He  was  therefore  of  a 
family  long  Christian;  and  the  married  state  of  his 
father  and  grandfather,  though  in  clerical  orders, 
is  not  strange ;  for  though  clerical  celibacj^  was  urged 
by  councils  and  popes,  it  was  still  far  from  universal. 
To  the  boy  the  British  name  Sucat,  "Ready  for 
Battle,"  was  given,  and  probably  also  the  Latin  name 
Patrick  (Patricius),  though  this  may  have  been  later 
self-assumed  in  view  of  his  father's  prominence  in  the 
local  community.^  Though  in  far-off  Britain,  it  was 
with  a  strong  sense  of  belonging  to  the  great  Roman 

I  The  latter  is  Professor  Zimmer's  conjecture;  the  former,  and 
more  probable,  that  of  Professor  Bury. 


PATRICK  91 

Empire  that  Patrick  grew  up.  That  Empire  had 
fallen  on  evil  days.  The  death  of  the  able  Theo- 
dosius  in  395  was  followed  by  the  division  of  the 
Empire  between  his  feeble  sons,  Arcadius  and  Hono- 
rius.  The  Germanic  tribes  promptly  began  their  dev- 
astating invasions  which  resulted  in  the  capture  of 
Rome  itself  in  410.  In  the  peril  of  the  central  prov- 
inces the  troops  were  withdrawn  from  the  Roman 
frontier.  One  legion  was  removed  from  Britain  in 
401,  and  practically  all  the  remaining  forces  in  407. 
Thus  left  well-nigh  defenseless,  the  Romanized  por- 
tions of  the  islands  were  attacked  by  their  less  civilized 
foes  on  all  sides,  by  Irish,  Picts,  and  Saxons,  and 
became  a  prey  to  plunder  and  soon  to  conquest. 

In  one  of  these  invasions,  probably  in  405,  at  all 
events  when  Patrick  was  sixteen,  he  was  taken  pris- 
oner by  Irish  raiders,  and  carried  a  slave  to  the 
western  portion  of  Ireland,  into  the  region  now  known 
as  Connaught.  Here,  under  the  hardest  of  condi- 
tions, as  a  herder  of  swine,  he  lived  six  years.  But 
here,  in  captivity,  his  spiritual  nature  was  awakened, 
as  Augustine's  had  been  amid  the  far  different  sur- 
roundings of  cultivated  and  luxurious  Milan.  He 
now  turned  to  God  in  constant  prayer,  going  out 
before  dawn,  or  whenever  he  could  steal  away  from 
his  work  to  seek  him.  Spiritual  things  now  became 
to  him  the  most  important  of  reahties.  At  last  he 
attempted  to  escape.  With  difficulty  he  made  his 
way  to  the  east  coast,  probably  to  Wicklow;    and 


92     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

there  he  found  a  vessel  about  to  sail,  the  heathen 
crew  of  which  he  persuaded  with  difficulty,  and  as  he 
believed  only  through  divine  answer  to  his  prayers, 
to  take  him  with  them.  As  part  of  the  cargo  was 
Irish  hounds,  they  may  have  felt  the  readier  to  allow 
his  presence  as  able,  from  his  rough  woodland  life, 
to  handle  these  fierce  dogs.  The  ship  bore  him  in 
three  days  to  what  is  now  France;  but  he  was  not 
easily  rid  of  his  new-found  and  distasteful  com- 
panions, who  kept  him  with  them  as  they  carefully 
avoided  the  towns  and  even  the  farms  of  that  land, 
then  just  desolated  by  the  invasions  of  the  Vandals. 
It  seems  probable  that  they  thus  journeyed  to  north- 
ern Italy,  though  Patrick's  description  of  the  experi- 
ence is  most  perplexing;  and  that  it  was  in  Italy, 
also,  in  411  or  412,  that  he  broke  away  from  the 
associates  whom  he  had  accompanied  since  sailing 
from  Ireland.  At  all  events  it  seems  certain  that  for 
several  years  he  now  found  a  peaceful  home  in  the 
monastery  which  Honoratus  had  just  founded  on  one 
of  the  little  islands  of  Lerins,  in  the  Mediterranean, 
off  the  extreme  southeastern  coast  of  what  is  now 
France. 

Patrick's  course  is  hard  to  trace,  but  it  would 
appear  that,  not  far  from  415,  he  was  once  more  in  his 
old  home  in  England.  There  he  had  a  remarkable 
dream,  like  to  that  of  Paul  at  Troas.^  It  seemed  to 
him  that  a  messenger  stood  by  him  with  letters  from 

I  Acts  16:9. 


PATRICK  93 

Ireland  summoning  him  to  labor  for  Christ  where 
once  he  had  been  a  slave.  Thenceforth  he  never 
doubted  his  divine  call  to  preach  the  gospel  in  that 
land.  He  would  not  undertake  the  work,  however, 
without  further  preparation  and  the  support  of  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities;  and,  therefore,  he  now 
went  to  Auxerre  in  France,  ninety-three  miles  south- 
east of  Paris,  for  study  and  to  enlist  friends.  Here  he 
was  ordained  a  deacon  by  Bishop  Amator.  But 
evidently  the  realization  of  his  plan  was  difficult,  and 
it  is  easy  to  imagine  that  his  want  of  education,  and 
what  must  have  seemed  to  many  his  visionary  nature, 
led  to  the  obstacles  which  he  found  in  his  way.  It 
was  to  be  fourteen  years  at  least  after  his  arrival  in 
Auxerre  before  his  wish  to  be  sent  to  Ireland  was  to 
be  gratified. 

The  accomplishment  of  his  desires  came  about  in 
a  way  that  involves  one  of  the  most  perplexing  his- 
torical questions  connected  with  Patrick's  career. 
Amator  had  been  succeeded  by  Germanus  as  bishop 
of  Auxerre.  The  Pelagian  controversy  was  at  its 
height.  Pelagius  himself  was  a  native  of  Britain,  or 
even  possibly  of  Ireland,  and  his  views  had  no  little 
following  among  the  Christians  of  those  lands.  In 
429,  at  the  request  of  British  opponents  of  Pelagian- 
ism,  and  with  the  approval  of  Pope  Celestine  (422- 
32)  secured  by  a  deacon  "Palladius,"  Germanus 
went  to  England  and  waged  spiritual  warfare  against 
Pelagian  opinions.     The  Irish  Christians  could  at 


94     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

most  have  been  few,  and  they  were  thus  far  unor- 
ganized. The  pope's  attention  was  attracted  by 
Palladius  to  Irish  affairs,  and,  probably  in  431,  he 
consecrated  the  deeply  interested  Palladius  as  bishop 
for  Ireland.  In  432  Patrick  entered  on  his  work  in 
Ireland  as  a  bishop.  The  question  naturally  arises 
whether  Palladius  and  Patrick  were  not  the  same 
person;  and  whether  Patrick  did  not,  therefore,  go  to 
Ireland  with  the  approval  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 
Competent  scholars  are  divided  on  the  problem.  To 
the  present  writer,  the  conclusion  that  the  same  per- 
son is  indicated  by  both  names  seems  much  the  more 
probable,  though  a  positive  affirmation  or  denial 
awaits  more  evidence  than  is  at  present  available.' 
If  Palladius  and  Patrick  were  not  one,  then  it  may 
be  concluded  that  Pope  Celestine  sent  Palladius,  and 
that  probably  on  news  of  his  early  death,  Patrick, 
always  so  eager  to  labor  in  Ireland,  but  thus  far 

I  Professor  Zimmer  regards  them  as  identical,  Professor  Bury 
as  separate  personalities.  For  the  identity  may  be  urged  the  close 
connection  of  dates;  the  interest  of  "Palladius"  in  Irish  affairs; 
the  fact  that  both  were  ordained  bishop  for  Ireland;  that  both 
had  relations  with  Germanus  and  Auxerre;  and  not  least,  that 
"Palladius"  seems  to  be  a  Latinized  equivalent  of  Patrick's 
British  name,  Sucat  =  "  Ready  for  Battle."  Against  it  may  be 
presented  the  tradition  represented  by  Muirchus'  Life  of  Patrick, 
late  in  the  seventh  century,  that  is,  two  hundred  years  after  Patrick's 
death,  that  "Palladius"  had  a  brief  mission  to  Ireland,  ending  in 
his  early  demise,  and  was  followed  by  Patrick.  Then,  too,  the 
fact  that  the  seventh-century  literature  regarding  Patrick  does 
not  represent  him  as  ordained  by  the  pope,  presents  a  serious 
argument  against  the  identity  claimed. 


PATRICK  95 

hindered,  was  consecrated  to  the  bishopric  so  recently 
estabhshed  and  vacated.  In  that  case  he  was  proba- 
bly ordained  by  Germanus  of  Auxerre.  At  all  events 
Palladius-Patrick,  or  Patrick,  if  Palladius  and  Pat- 
rick are  not  identical,  entered  on  his  life-task  in 
Ireland  in  432.  All  had  been  thus  far  a  long  prepa- 
ration, the  difficulties  of  which  had  been  surmounted 
by  his  Christian  enthusiasm  and  his  confidence  that 
God  had  called  him  to  this  service. 

From  432  to  his  death  on  March  17,  461,  with  the 
probable  exception  of  a  brief  journey  to  Rome  about 
441-43,  Patrick  labored  in  Ireland.  The  accounts  of 
his  work  are  so  overlaid  with  legend  that  its  amount 
or  its  places  are  difficult  to  trace;  but  certain  it 
is  that  it  was  of  a  threefold  character.  He  preached 
as  a  missionary  to  the  heathen,  and  with  marked 
success.  He  himself  recorded  that  he  had  baptized 
thousands.  Such  a  statement  involves  of  course 
much  superficiality  in  his  presentation  of  Christianity; 
but  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  heathen  population  of  the  island  were  won 
by  him  to  at  least  an  outward  acknowledgment  of 
the  gospel.  He  ordained  priests  and  bishops,  and 
gave  to  the  church  of  Ireland  a  definite  form.  He 
founded  monasteries,  for  which  the  Irish  of  his  day 
seem  to  have  had  a  peculiar  aptitude ;  and  in  Ireland 
the  church  became  monastic  in  its  form  for  the  next 
two  centuries  at  least  to  a  degree  not  elsewhere  char- 
acteristic of  it.     Indeed,  it  may  be  believed  that  this 


96     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

monastic  tendency  went  much  farther  than  Patrick 
himself  desired.  He  would  have  preferred  a  nearer 
approximation  to  conditions  as  they  existed  on  the 
continent.  He  made  Latin  the  language  of  worship 
in  the  Irish  church.  He  was,  that  is,  not  so  much 
the  representative  of  the  papacy,  as  of  the  unity  of 
western  Christendom,  into  conformity  with  which  he 
would  bring  the  weak  Irish  Christianity  which  he 
found  at  the  beginning  of  his  activities,  and  which 
he  greatly  extended  and  strengthened. 

The  scenes  of  Patrick's  labors  in  Ireland  are 
largely  obscured  by  legend;  but  his  work  centered 
probably  in  the  northeast  portion  of  the  island. 
There  he  founded  the  church  of  Armagh  about  444, 
which  was  destined  to  be  the  leading  see  of  Ireland, 
and  to  have  an  ecclesiastical  distinction  among  its 
bishoprics  like  that  of  Canterbury  in  England.  At 
Saul,  in  the  present  County  of  Down,  he  was  buried. 
Besides  these  efforts  to  spread  Christianity  in  north- 
eastern Ireland,  he  worked  also  in  Meath,  and  in  the 
western  districts  which  compose  Connaught.  His 
activities  were  therefore  chiefly  in  the  northern  half 
of  the  island.  That  he  regarded  it  all  as  the  field 
of  his  charge  is  evident,  and  there  is  reason  to  think 
that  he  preached  yet  more  widely  than  has  been  indi- 
cated ;  but  these  labors  are  exceedingly  obscure. 

Enough  of  the  picture  of  Patrick  appears  through 
the  mists  of  time,  however,  to  show  not  merely  that  he 
was  a  man  of  rare  Christian  enthusiasm  and  indom- 


PATRICK  97 

itable  persistence,  who,  in  spite  of  all  limitations 
through  lack  of  education,  did  a  large  mission- 
ary work;  but  that  he  aimed  to  serve  the  general 
cause  of  Christianity  well  in  a  critical  age.  The 
Roman  world  was  falling  into  ruin.  In  Britain,  in- 
vasions of  Angles  and  Saxons  were  beginning  which 
were  to  make  large  portions  of  England  once  more 
heathen.  Patrick  sought  to  organize  the  feeble  Chris- 
tian beginnings  of  Ireland.  He  brought  them,  for  a 
time  at  least,  into  closer  connection  with  the  Chris- 
tianity of  continental  Europe.  He  helped  to  extend 
the  conquests  of  Christianity  beyond  the  farthest 
reach  of  Roman  arms.  He  had  no  thought  of  foster- 
ing a  church  independent  of  the  papacy,  or  of  the 
church  of  the  Empire.  Rather,  he  sought  for  the 
Christians  of  far-off  Ireland  closer  fellowship  with 
the  rest  of  western  Christendom.  That  the  type  of 
unity  which  has  Rome  as  its  center  was  to  prove  full 
of  peril  he  could  not  see.  That  result  was  still  veiled 
in  the  future.  But  that  he  should  wish  the  Chris- 
tians of  Ireland  not  only  increased  in  numbers,  but 
organized  and  brought  fully  into  the  great  sisterhood 
of  churches  of  western  Christendom,  shows  the  strong 
impression  which  the  imperial  unity  that  had  its  cen- 
ter at  Rome  had  made  on  one  of  Rome's  citizens, 
though  he  was  born  in  the  farthest  confines  of  the 
Empire  and  in  the  time  of  its  physical  decay. 

Yet  Patrick's  desires  for  organization  and  unity 
were  but  imperfectly  realized.     The  tribal  division 


98     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  Ireland,  its  passion  for  monasticism,  and  its  ac- 
tual separation  from  the  Christianity  of  the  conti- 
nent, made  the  type  of  religion  in  Ireland  for  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  after  his  death  essentially 
monastic.  Monasteries,  rather  than  bishoprics,  were 
the  seats  of  its  life.  The  island  was  covered  with 
them;  and  from  the  monasteries  came  missionaries 
who  not  merely  carried  Christianity  to  western  Scot- 
land, like  Columba  (563),  but  spread  it  in  northern 
England,  and  even  reached  Italy,  Germany,  and  ulti- 
mately far-off  Iceland  with  their  labors.  It  was  not 
till  long  after  Roman  missions,  begun  in  597,  had 
converted  a  large  portion  of  Anglo-Saxon  England, 
that  Ireland  fully  entered  into  the  Roman  obedience. 
That  history  of  semi-independence  was  on  the  whole 
most  creditable;  but  under  the  conditions  of  the 
early  Middle  Ages,  the  larger  unity  in  which  Patrick 
believed,  and  for  which  he  strove,  was  well-nigh 
essential  to  ultimate  progress. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  true  of  Patrick's  education  and  intellectual 
abilities  ? 

2.  What  was  the  nature  of  the  population  of  the  British 
islands  ?  In  how  far  was  it  Christian  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fifth  century  ? 

3.  What  was  the  effect  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  conquest  of 
England  ? 

4.  Was  Ireland  a  wholly  heathen  land  when  Patrick 
began  his  work  ? 


PATRICK  99 

5.  Where  and   when   was   Patrick  born?    His  captivity 
and  escape  ? 

6.  What  was  the  nature  of  Patrick's  spiritual  awakening, 
and  what  did  it  lead  him  to  desire  to  do  ? 

7.  What  relation   had   the   Pelagian   controversy  to  Pat- 
rick's going  to  Ireland  ? 

8.  Was  Patrick  ordained  and  sent  by  Pope  Celestine  ? 

9.  What  was   the  nature  of  Patrick's  work  in  Ireland? 
Its  threefold  aim  ? 

10.  Where  did  he  labor  and  where  was  he  buried  ? 

11.  What  was  the  value,  and  what  the  results  of  Patrick's 
work? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

H.  Zimmer  (translated  by  Miss  A.  Meyer),  The  Celtic  Church 

in  Britain  and  Ireland  (London,  1902). 
J.  B.  Bury,  The  Life  of  St.  Patrick  and  His  Place  in  History 

(London,  1905). 
Philip  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (New  York, 

1888),  IV,  43-52. 


BENEDICT 


VI 

BENEDICT 

There  has  already  been  abundant  occasion  to 
mention  monasticism  in  these  sketches.  The  insti- 
tution, as  has  been  seen,  was  favored  by  men  as 
widely  divided  geographically  as  Athanasius,  Augus- 
tine, Ambrose,  and  Patrick.  In  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries  it  was  rapidly  spreading,  and  down  to  the 
time  of  Luther,  who  was  himself  a  monk,  almost 
every  leader  of  the  church  who  rendered  it  conspicu- 
ous service  was  either  himself  a  monk  or  a  warm  sup- 
porter of  monasticism.  Such  unanimity  of  approval 
shows  that  the  institution  must  have  appealed  to 
men  for  centuries  as  the  highest  manifestation  of  the 
Christian  life.  Though  Protestantism  rightly  repu- 
diated it,  it  is  still  regarded  with  favor  by  large  sec- 
tions of  the  church. 

Monasticism  was  the  normal  outcome  of  ascetic 
tendencies  which  have  their  beginnings  even  in 
apostolic  times.  A  life  of  abstinence  and  especially 
of  celibacy  was  very  early  regarded  as  of  superior 
sanctity,  and  was  approved  by  such  men  as  Ter- 
tuUian,  Origen,  and  Cyprian.  Long  before  the  con- 
version of  the  Empire  many  took  such  vows,  though 
at  first  without  withdrawing  from  the  ordinary  life  of 
the  cities.  The  first  separate  society  of  ascetics  dates 
103 


I04     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

from  the  dawn  of  the  fourth  century  and  was  founded 
by  Hierakas  of  Leontopolis  in  Egypt.  Its  members 
were  pledged  to  abstain  from  marriage,  wine,  and 
meat.  But  the  tendency  which  it  represented  went 
back  almost  to  the  beginnings  of  Christianity.  Its 
fundamental  principle,  the  basis  of  later  monasticism, 
was  the  feeling  that  in  withdrawal  from  the  ordinary 
associations  of  the  world  and  in  the  conquest  of  the 
passions  the  highest  type  of  Christian  life  is  to  be 
found.  It  was  favored  by  the  conviction,  as  old  as 
the  time  of  Hermas  (130-40),  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment teaches  a  lower  and  a  higher  morality,  its  pre- 
cepts of  faith,  hope,  and  charity  being  binding  on  all ; 
but  its  advice  being  for  those  who  would  do  more 
than  is  required  of  the  ordinary  Christian.  Chief  of 
such  works  of  supererogation  are  voluntary  poverty 
and  voluntary  abstinence  from  marriage.^  They 
constituted  the  elements,  it  was  thought,  of  the  holier 
life. 

Monasticism  itself,  which  had  its  roots  in  this 
earlier  asceticism,  originated  in  Egypt.  Its  first  form, 
and  one  long  continuing,  especially  in  the  East,  was 
that  of  the  hermit  life.  Anthony,  the  earliest  example 
of  Christian  monasticism,  was  born,  about  251,  in 
the  village  of  Koma.  Under  the  impulse  of  Christ's 
words  to  the  rich  young  man,^  which  may  be  called 
the  golden  text  of  monasticism,  he  gave  away  his 

I  Matt.  19:10-22;   I  Cor.  7:7,  8. 
a  Matt.  19:21. 


BENEDICT  105 

property  when  twenty,  and  soon  took  up  a  lonely  her- 
mit's life  in  a  tomb.  His  example  was  contagious, 
and  he  speedily  had  scores  of  imitators.  Later 
legend  loved  to  recount  his  battles  with  temptations 
assailing  him  in  visible  forms.  His  long  life  was 
protracted  to  one  hundred  and  five  years,  and  he  was 
the  friend  and  supporter  of  Athanasius  in  the  great 
Arian  conflict.  While  the  hermit  type  long  con- 
tinued popular  in  Egypt,  a  great  improvement  was 
effected  there  by  Pachomius,  when,  not  far  from  the 
year  322,  he  instituted  the  first  Christian  monastery. 
Instead  of  permitting  the  monks  to  live  singly  or  in 
groups  of  hermits,  each  a  law  to  himself,  Pachomius 
estabhshed  a  regulated  common  life,  in  which  the 
monks  ate,  labored,  and  worshiped,  keeping  fixed 
hours,  doing  manual  work,  dressed  in  uniform  garb, 
and  were  under  strict  discipline.  Pachomius'  re- 
form was  an  immense  advance  on  the  hermit  life 
with  its  liability  to  idleness  and  eccentricity.  It 
brought  monasticism  into  system  and  restraint.  It 
made  the  monastic  life  easy  for  women,  for  whom 
the  hermit  form  was  well-nigh  impossible. 

Undoubtedly  the  strongest  appeal  made  by  mo- 
nasticism to  the  church  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies was  due  to  the  belief,  already  noticed,  that  it 
was  the  most  Christian  form  of  life.  Its  spread  was 
aided,  however,  by  the  general  misery  of  the  declining 
Empire,  especially  the  grinding  system  of  taxing  the 
middle  classes  of  the  population,  to  which,  more 


lo6     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

than  to  any  other  single  cause,  the  economic  and 
military  collapse  of  the  Empire  was  due.  Politically 
and  socially  monasticism  was  most  unfortunate.  At 
the  time  the  Empire  was  most  suffering  from  lack 
of  men  to  fill  its  armies  and  money  for  its  treasury, 
it  took  thousands  from  family  life  and  productive 
industry.  Religiously  considered,  its  effects  were 
twofold.  While  the  system  undoubtedly  harmed 
ordinary  Christian  life  by  fostering  the  feeling  that 
the  truest  Christian  service  could  not  be  rendered 
under  the  ordinary  and  natural  conditions  of  human 
society,  it  produced,  not  merely  in  its  early  period, 
but  throughout  mediaeval  history,  a  noble  army  of 
missionaries,  preachers,  scholars,  and  consecrated 
men  and  women. 

Monasticism  soon  spread  far  beyond  the  bounds 
of  Egypt.  Syria  was  its  next  great  conquest;  and 
Asia  Minor  was  won,  especially  through  the  influence 
of  Basil,  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  and  Gregory  of 
Nyssa,  the  champions  of  the  Nicene  faith  of  the 
generation  that  succeeded  Athanasius.  To  Basil, 
who  died  in  379,  was  due  the  "  Rule"  under  which  the 
monasticism  of  the  Greek  church  is  organized  to  the 
present  day. 

From  the  East  monasticism  was  speedily  intro- 
duced into  western  Europe,  in  spite  of  some  opposi- 
tion, by  the  efforts  of  Athanasius,  though  it  was  not 
till  between  370  and  380  that  the  first  monastery  was 
there  established.    Furthered  in  Rome  by  Jerome, 


BENEDICT  107 

in  Milan  by  Ambrose,  in  North  Africa  by  Augustine, 
in  France  by  Martin  of  Tours,  the  institution  spread 
with  immense  rapidity  through  all  western  Chris- 
tendom. Great  diversity  of  organization  existed, 
however;  some  monasteries  following  the  "Rule"  of 
Pachomius,  others  that  of  Basil,  and  yet  others  those 
composed  by  western  leaders.  In  this  want  of  uni- 
formity was  a  source  of  much  irregularity,  and,  as 
time  soon  proved,  of  much  corruption.  The  sys- 
tematizer  and  organizer  of  western  monasticism,  the 
man  who  gave  to  early  monasticism  its  noblest  expres- 
sion, was  to  be  Benedict. 

Benedict  was  born  in  Nursia  (Norcia),  about 
eighty-five  miles  northeast  of  Rome,  late  in  the  fifth 
century.  His  education  in  Rome  had  advanced  but 
little  when  he  adopted  the  extremest  form  of  asceti- 
cism, and  dwelt  as  a  hermit  in  a  cave  near  Subiaco,  in 
the  mountains  some  forty  miles  eastward  of  the  city. 
Here  he  spent  three  years  in  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  in  severe  self-mortification,  till  the  monks 
of  a  neighboring  monastery  chose  him  for  their  abbot. 
His  strict  discipline  proved  irksome  to  them,  how- 
ever. He  narrowly  escaped  death  by  poison  at  their 
hands,  and  gladly  betook  himself  once  more  to  his 
cave.  He  could  not  now  be  alone,  for  his  fame 
attracted  disciples.  He  taught  children,  he  estab- 
lished a  group  of  small  monasteries.  Subiaco  proved 
at  length,  however,  an  uncomfortable  place  of  so- 
journ by  reason  of  the  jealous  opposition  to  Benedict 


io8     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  one  of  its  clergy;  and,  therefore,  he  left  it,  now  a 
man  of  ripened  observation  and  experience.  In  529, 
he  laid,  at  Monte  Cassino,  eighty-five  miles  south- 
east of  Rome,  the  foundations  of  what  was  to  be 
the  most  famous  monastery  in  Europe,  the  mother- 
house  of  the  Benedictine  order.  For  this  monastery 
he  wrote  his  celebrated  "Rule."  Here  he  taught, 
preached,  and  lived,  a  pattern  of  monastic  piety  till 
his  death,  which  occurred  after  the  summer  of  542.' 
Benedict  was  no  scholar,  but  he  had  the  Roman 
genius  for  administration,  an  earnest  belief  in  mo- 
nasticism  as  the  ideal  Christian  life,  and  a  profound 
knowledge  of  human  nature.  In  the  creation  of  his 
"Rule"  he  built  on  the  work  of  the  regulators  of 
monasticism  who  had  gone  before  him,  but  with  a 
moderation  and  good  sense  that  reveal  the  keenness 
of  his  observation  and  his  capacity  to  meet  existing 
needs.  Monasticism,  in  his  judgment,  had  its  grave 
perils.  Many  monks  lived  unworthily  of  their  pro- 
fession. Some  were  no  better  than  vagabonds. 
These  evils  were  due  to  lack  of  discipline.  Discipline 
was  a  fundamental  need ;  yet  it  must  not  be  made  too 
heavy  a  yoke  for  ordinary  men.  It  is  this  remarkable 
combination  of  strict  restraint  with  some  real  degree 
of  freedom,  of  lifelong  vows  with  moderation  in 
requirements,  that  above  all  distinguished  Benedict's 
"Rule." 

I  The  traditional  date,  March  21,  543,  is  without  adequate 
historic  support.  The  East- Gothic  king,  Totila,  visited  him  in 
the  summer  of  542.     That  is  the  last  certain  event  in  his  life. 


BENEDICT  109 

Benedict's  conception  of  the  monastic  career  seems 
to  have  been  that  of  a  spiritual  garrison  holding  duty 
for  Christ  in  a  hostile  world.  As  such,  its  discipline 
was  a  necessary  part  of  its  life.  None  should  enter 
its  service  until  he  had  tried  the  life  fully  for  at  least 
a  year's  novitiate,  during  which  he  should  be  free 
to  leave.  This  completed,  the  would-be  monk  took 
the  threefold  vows  which  forever  cut  him  off  from 
the  world,  binding  himself  to  permanent  life  in  the 
monastery,  poverty  and  chastity,  and  obedience  to  its 
rule  and  its  head.  The  government  of  the  monas- 
tery was  vested  in  an  abbot;  and  nowhere  does 
Benedict's  skill  more  signally  appear  than  in  his 
provisions  for  its  exercise.  While  each  monk  was 
vowed  to  absolute  obedience  to  the  abbot's  com- 
mands, even  if  they  seemed  to  him  impossible  of  ful- 
filment, the  abbot  was  chosen  by  the  free  suffrage  of 
all  the  monks,  he  could  decide  weighty  matters  onl)' 
after  calling  for  the  judgment  of  the  whole  body,  and 
smaller  concerns  affecting  the  monastery  only  on 
hearing  the  opinion  of  the  elder  brethren.  Benedict 
was  wise  enough  to  know  that  a  sensible  man,  even 
if  given  absolute  authority  in  theory,  would  not  long 
resist  the  wishes  of  the  majority  of  those  whose  advice 
he  was  obliged  to  take  in  all  cases  of  importance. 
Under  the  abbot,  and  appointed  by  him  "with  the 
advice  of  the  brethren,"  was  to  be  a  provost  as  an 
assistant  in  government,  and  in  large  monasteries 
"deans,"  also,  chosen  for  the  same  purpose.     That 


no    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  separation  of  the  monks  from  the  world  should 
be  as  complete  as  possible,  Benedict  prescribed  that 
each  monastery,  wherever  feasible,  should  be  equip- 
ped to  furnish  the  necessaries  of  life,  since  he  deemed 
wandering  outside  its  walls  a  chief  spiritual  danger. 

Benedict's  regulations  concerning  food  and  drink 
exhibited  a  similar  moderation  and  wisdom.  He 
would  have  neither  luxury  nor  undue  fasting,  and 
he  was  especially  considerate  in  the  care  of  those  who 
were  ill.  Since  worship  was  a  large  part  of  monastic 
life,  careful  requirements  were  made  for  its  observ- 
ance in  the  "Rule."  On  the  supposed  authority 
of  Scripture,  Benedict  required  not  merely  seven 
services  in  the  twenty-four  hours,  but  made  much 
of  that  appointed  for  two  in  the  morning,  the 
"  vigil.  "^  In  contrast  to  the  prescriptions  of  some 
other  "Rules,"  however,  the  services  appointed  by 
Benedict,  except  the  "vigil,"  were  notably  brief, 
demanding  only  about  twenty  minutes  each.  They 
consisted  chiefly  in  the  recitation  of  the  Psalms,  the 
whole  book  being  used  each  week. 

Benedict's  most  fruitful  requirements  were  re- 
garding labor.  "Idleness,"  said  he,  in  the  "Rule," 
"is  hostile  to  the  soul,  and  therefore  the  brethren 
should  be  occupied  at  fixed  times  in  manual  labor, 
and  at  definite  hours  in  religious  reading."  He 
saw  clearly  the  moral  value  of  work;  and  he  was 
broad-minded  enough  in  his  conception  of  labor  to 

I  Ps.  no  :  62,  164. 


BENEDICT  III 

include  in  it  that  of  the  mind  as  well  as  that  of  the 
hands.  The  proportion  naturally  varied  with  the 
seasons.  In  the  harvest  time  of  summer  the  manual 
labor  of  the  fields  was  the  first  duty;  in  the  com- 
parative rest  of  winter,  especially  in  Lent,  oppor- 
tunities, and  consequently  requirements,  for  reading 
were  increased.  Those  who  could  not  read  were  to 
have  additional  manual  work  assigned  to  them,  that 
they  might  have  no  relaxation  of  duties  by  reason  of 
their  ignorance.  Besides  reading,  the  instruction  of 
boys  placed  in  charge  of  the  monastery  was  a  duty  of 
the  monks  following  the  example  of  Benedict  him- 
self. 

A  Benedictine  monastery  that  was  true  to  the 
purposes  of  the  founder  of  the  order  was,  therefore, 
a  little  world  in  itself,  in  which  the  monks  lived  a 
strenuous  but  not  overburdened  life,  involving 
worship,  vigorous  labor  in  the  shop  and  fields,  and 
serious  reading.  It  made  every  Benedictine  mon- 
astery the  possessor  of  something  of  a  library;  and, 
though  Benedict  himself  says  nothing  about  clas- 
sical learning,  his  aim  being  primarily  religious,  the 
Benedictine  monasteries  soon  copied  and  read  the 
great  literary  examples  of  Latin  antiquity.  Perhaps 
a  considerable  influence  in  this  direction  of  study 
came  from  the  monastery  near  Squillace,  in  extreme 
southern  Italy,  founded  before  Benedict's  death  by 
Cassiodorius,  in  which  the  cultivation  of  the  classics 
was  one  of  the  duties  of  the  monks.     At  all  events,  it 


112     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

is  to  the  monasteries  of  the  order  of  Benedict  that 
we  owe  not  merely  the  preservation  of  the  writings 
of  the  Latin  Church  Fathers  but  the  masterpieces 
of  Roman  Hterature. 

From  Italy  the  Benedictine  ''Rule"  spread  rapidly 
over  western  Europe.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  ex- 
aggerate the  services  of  these  monks  in  the  transition 
period  caused  by  the  ruin  of  the  old  Roman  civiliza- 
tion and  the  growth  in  its  place  of  the  new  life  of 
the  Germanic  conquerors.  That  that  new  life  pre- 
served so  much  of  the  best  the  old  had  to  offer  in 
Christianity  and  civilization  alike  was  largely  due  to 
this  Benedictine  monasticism.  Northern  Europe  was 
then  much  like  North  America  at  the  coming  of  the 
first  European  settlers.  It  was  in  large  measure  a 
land  of  forests  and  untilled  soil.  The  monasteries 
did  what  a  modern  mission  station  does  among  bar- 
barous peoples.  They  instructed  in  the  principles  of 
Christian '^y,  they  relieved  distress  and  sickness  to  a 
considerable  degree,  they  taught  agriculture  to  the 
peoples  of  northern  Europe,  they  preserved  such 
learning  as  survived  the  Germanic  invasions,  they 
gave  the  only  schools.  Above  all,  they  made  it 
possible,  in  a  rude  age  when  men  won  and  held 
property  and  place  in  the  world  by  the  sword,  for 
peace-loving,  religious-minded  people  to  find  a  com- 
paratively quiet  and  sheltered  life.  They  gave  the 
only  opportunity  that  the  early  Middle  Ages  had  to 
offer  for  study,  for  protection  amid  constant  warfare, 


BENEDICT  113 

and  for  rest.  They  were  a  great  missionary  force, 
and  a  constant  reminder  to  a  rude  population  that 
there  are  other  interests  than  those  of  the  body. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  monasticism  had  its  perils. 
Some  of  them  have  already  been  pointed  out.  While 
the  individual  monk  might  vow  himself  to  poverty, 
the  monasteries  often  grew  immensely  rich  through 
gifts,  especially  of  land.  Their  discipline  frequently 
became  lax.  Their  original  strenuousness  was  not 
easily  preserved.  The  history  of  the  Middle  Ages 
shows  constant  efforts  for  their  reform;  and  the 
foundation  of  new  branches  designed  to  repair  the 
corruption  into  which  the  old  had  fallen.  Above  all, 
their  conception  of  the  Christian  life  was  essentially 
unnatural.  To  enter  a  monastery  was  to  separate 
from  the  world,  to  abandon  the  ordinary  relationships 
of  social  life,  to  eschew  marriage  and  all  that  the 
Christian  home  signifies.  These  were  the  funda- 
mental evils  of  monasticism  and  they  grew  out  of  an 
ascetic  interpretation  of  Christianity  which  is  much 
earlier  than  the  monastic  system.  But  to  recognize 
this  now  is  not  to  say  that  these  faults  were  apparent 
to  the  men  of  the  declining  Roman  Empire  or  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  For  them,  generally,  the  monastic 
seemed  the  truest  type  of  the  Christian  life.  Nor 
should  we,  in  noting  the  evils  of  monasticism,  in  any 
way  underrate  the  immense  services  of  the  system  to 
the  spread  and  development  alike  of  Christianity  and 
of  civilization  in  the  most  trying  period  of  European 


114     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

history,  and,  in  fact,  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  to 
the  Reformation.  Early  European  monasticism  owed 
its  usefulness  in  higher  degree  than  to  any  other  of 
its  founders  to  the  organizing  ability,  good  sense,  and 
consecration  of  Benedict. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  were  the  fundamental  principles  of  Christian 
asceticism?  How  early  did  it  appear  in  the  church?  How 
widely  did  it  spread  ? 

2.  In  what  country  did  monasticism  originate  ?  Who  was 
the  first  Christian  hermit  ? 

3.  What  improvement  did  Pachomius  introduce  ? 

4.  How  did  the  decUning  state  of  the  Roman  Empire  aid 
the  growth  of  monasticism  ? 

5.  What  influence  had  Basil  on  its  spread  and  organiza- 
tion? 

6.  Under  whose  auspices  was  monasticism  introduced  into 
the  West? 

7.  What  was  the  early  religious  life  of  Benedict  ?  Where 
and  how  did  he  labor  ?  What  great  monastery  did  he  estab- 
lish? 

8.  What  evils  did  Benedict  attempt  to  correct?  What 
was  the  importance  of  his  "Rule"  ?  What  was  his  conception 
of  the  monastic  life  ? 

9.  How  did  one  become  a  monk  ?  How  was  a  monastery 
governed  ?  How  did  Benedict  combine  obedience  with  some 
degree  of  freedom  ? 

10.  What  can  be  said  of  Benedict's  prescriptions  as  to 
food  and  worship  ? 

11.  What  importance  did  Benedict  attach  to  labor? 
Why  ?    Was  this  labor  manual  only  ? 

12.  Some  services  of  monasticism  to  Europe? 

13.  The  good  and  evil  in  monasticism  ? 


BENEDICT  115 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

Philip  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (New  York, 

1884),  III,  147-233- 
Ephraim  Emerton,  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Middle 

Ages  (Boston,  1888),  pp.  135-49. 

,  Mediaeval  Europe  (Boston,  1894),  pp.  555-81. 

F.  Guizot,  History  of  Civilization  in  France,  Lecture  XIV 

(1830),  English  translation  (New  York,  1882). 
Adolf  Harnack,  Monasticism  (London   1901). 


HILDEBRAND 


VII 
HILDEBRAND 

There  has  been  frequent  occasion  to  mention  the 
growth  of  the  power  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  That 
increase  had  many  causes  and  was  by  no  means  uni- 
form. Even  before  the  close  of  the  first  century, 
Clement,  writing  to  the  Corinthians  in  the  name  of 
the  Roman  church,  uses  a  tone  of  admonition  that, 
though  fraternal,  implied  that  Rome  ought  to  be 
heard.  The  Gnostic  controversy  strengthened  Rome's 
position  as  the  great  church  of  the  West  in  which 
apostles  had  worked,  and  therefore  as  the  bearer  of 
the  apostolic  tradition.  Irenaeus  and  Tertullian, 
before  the  latter  became  a  Montanist,  thus  looked  up 
to  it  as  the  head  of  Christendom.  Its  position  in  the 
capital  favored  its  growth  in  honor,  and  no  less  the 
large  size  and  conspicuous  benevolence  of  its  con- 
gregation. In  the  great  Nicene  and  christological 
controversies  the  church  of  Rome  could  boast  its 
orthodoxy.  The  exigencies  of  the  Nicene  quarrel  led 
the  Council  of  Sardica,  in  343,  to  give  to  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  the  right  of  deciding  disputed  possession  of 
bishoprics.  An  edict  of  the  emperor  Theodosius,  in 
380,  ordered  all  to  be  of  the  faith  given  by  Peter  to 
the  Romans  and  laid  legal  foundations  for  the  au- 
thority of  the  pope  over  all  western  Christendom. 

119 


I20     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Pope  Innocent  I  (401-17)  claimed  judicial  power  over 
the  whole  church,  and  Leo  I  (440-61)  renewed  the 
pretentions  in  yet  more  drastic  form,  the  more  effect- 
ively because  an  edict  of  the  western  emperor  Valen- 
tinian  III,  in  445,  recognized  the  pope  as  the  head 
of  the  church,  with  power  to  call  bishops  to  judgment, 
and  with  authority  to  declare  what  should  be  held  by 
all  as  law  in  ecclesiastical  questions. 

The  Germanic  invasions,  so  destructive  of  the 
political  fabric  of  the  Roman  Empire,  helped  mightily 
the  growth  of  the  papacy.  They  completed  the  sepa- 
ration of  East  and  West,  thus  giving  the  papacy  an 
independent  field  for  development.  They  removed 
imperial  control  such  as  still  pressed  on  the  patriarch 
of  Constantinople.  They  made  the  pope  the  heir  of 
the  honor  and  reverence  which  attached,  even  in  its 
political  decay,  to  the  city  which  had  once  been  the 
capital  of  the  world.  Above  all,  they  presented  a 
splendid  missionary  opportunity  of  which  the  papacy 
amply  availed  itself,  not  merely  for  the  spread  of 
Christianity,  but  for  the  extension  of  its  own  author- 
ity. The  missions  of  the  monk  Augustine  to  Eng- 
land, in  596,  sent  by  Gregory  I  (590-604),  and 
of  Boniface  to  Germany  (719-55)  added  strong 
churches  in  those  lands  to  the  Roman  communion, 
which  were  much  more  directly  champions  of  the 
papacy  than  the  older  ecclesiastical  bodies  of  western 
Europe. 

Nor  did  the  papacy  neglect  the  new  monarchies 


HILDEBRAND  I2I 

that  rose  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  state.  It  early 
entered  into  relations  with  the  Franks.  With  papal 
approval  the  crown  was  transferred  from  the  last  of 
the  incapable  Merovingians  to  Pippin  the  Short 
(751,  754).  In  turn,  the  papacy  received  from  that 
Frankish  king  the  beginnings  of  its  territorial  sover- 
eignty, the  "States  of  the  Church,"  which  it  was  to 
hold  till  1870.  Whatever  other  factors  may  have 
entered  into  the  transfer  of  the  Roman  imperial  dig- 
nity, in  the  judgment  of  western  Europe,  from  the 
feeble  Constantine  VI  of  Constantinople  to  Charle- 
magne, it  was  Pope  Leo  III  who  crowned  the  new 
emperor  at  Rome  in  800.  It  was  Nicholas  I  (858- 
67)  who  compelled  a  royal  great-grandson  of  Charle- 
magne to  take  back  a  discarded  wife,  who  humbled 
the  chief  bishops  of  Germany,  France,  and  Italy,  and 
who  asserted  the  rights  of  the  papacy  even  in  the  case 
of  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople.  In  his  claims 
and  deeds  the  programme  of  the  mediaeval  papacy 
may  be  said  to  have  been  presented.  Even  Hilde- 
brand  went  but  little  farther  than  Nicholas. 

Nothing  was  more  remarkable  about  the  Roman 
Empire  than  the  long-continued  sway  which  it  held 
over  the  imaginations  of  men.  Even  after  its  political 
institutions  had  crumbled  into  ruin,  it  seemed  to  the 
Middle  Ages  that  it  could  not  die.  The  civilized 
world,  however,  actually  divided,  still  continued  theo- 
retically a  unit,  having,  as  Pope  Gelasius  I  had  de- 
clared to  the  emperor  Anastasius  in  494,  tw^o  heads, 


122     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  one  temporal,  represented  by  the  emperor,  the 
other  spiritual,  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Hence, 
when  a  Germanic  leader  of  imperial  size  appeared  in 
Charlemagne,  the  sentiment  of  western  Christendom 
approved  what  it  regarded  as  the  transfer  of  the 
Roman  Empire  to  him;  and  when  his  line  ran  out  in 
inefficiency,  it  believed  that  the  Empire  was  continued 
in  the  new  rulers  of  Germany.  In  962,  when  Pope 
John  XII  crowned  Otto  I  of  Germany  emperor,  the 
''Holy  Roman  Empire"  began  that  was  to  last  till 
1806;  but  in  the  judgment  of  the  time  it  was  no  new 
institution.  Otto  had  simply  been  given  a  place  in 
the  long  line  of  heads  of  the  temporal  world  which 
had  continued  since  Augustus. 

In  mediaeval  theory,  therefore,  church  and  state 
were  but  two  aspects  of  Christendom;  the  one  rep- 
resenting Christian  society  organized  to  secure  spir- 
itual blessings,  the  other  the  same  society  united  to 
preserve  justice  and  temporal  well-being.  Theoreti- 
cally church  and  state  were  in  harmonious  inter- 
play, each  aiming  to  secure  the  good  of  mankind; 
but  as  the  soul  is  more  important  than  the  body,  and 
man's  salvation  more  desirable  than  his  temporal 
happiness,  the  church  is  the  higher  in  dignity  of  the 
two  divinely  co-ordinated  powers. 

It  is  easy  to  see,  however,  that  such  a  theory  led 
to  constant  rivalry  in  practice.  Theoretically  har- 
monious, church  and  state  were  actually  contestants, 
the  question  being  should  the  church  rule  the  state, 


HILDEBRAND  123 

or  the  state  control  the  church  ?  This  contest  was 
illustrated  on  countless  fields,  large  and  small, 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  but  nowhere  so  con- 
spicuously as  between  the  heads  of  the  two  orders — 
the  popes  and  the  emperors.  Sometimes  the  one 
predominated,  sometimes  the  other.  Under  Charle- 
magne's masterful  rule,  the  leader  of  the  state  was 
unquestionably  the  superior;  his  weak  great-grand- 
sons found  in  Nicholas  I,  as  has  been  seen,  a  spirit- 
ual ruler  of  greater  force  than  theirs.  But,  after 
Nicholas,  the  weight  of  influence  for  nearly  two 
centuries  was  unquestionably  on  the  imperial  side. 
The  popes,  nominally  chosen  by  the  clergy  and  people 
of  Rome,  were  from  the  last  quarter  of  the  ninth  to 
nearly  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  centuries  really  the 
creatures  of  the  unscrupulous  nobility  of  Rome  and 
its  vicinity.  When  these  lords  had  their  way  their 
appointees  were,  with  some  exceptions,  unworthy  of 
their  high  office.  The  papacy  fell  to  its  lowest 
depths.  The  emperors  repeatedly  interfered  and  se- 
cured the  deposition  of  some  of  the  worst,  practically 
controlling  the  papal  chair  itself.  Thus  Otto  I  (963 
and  966)  interfered  in  papal  affairs  and  compelled  the 
people  of  Rome  to  swear  to  choose  no  pope  without 
imperial  consent.  Otto  III  (in  996  and  999)  placed 
his  own  friends  on  the  papal  throne.  Henry  III  at 
the  Synod  of  Sutri  (1046)  secured  the  deposition  of 
three  rival  Italian  popes,  and  vindicated  for  him- 
self the  right  to  nominate  to  the  office.     The  Empire 


124    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

was  thus  actually  the  superior  of  the  papacy.  While 
emperors  thus  occasionally  controlled  even  the  choice 
of  popes,  the  sovereigns  of  the  period  naturally 
exercised  a  practical  right  of  nomination  and  ap- 
pointment to  high  ecclesiastical  office  in  their  own 
territories.  These  appointments  were  often  made 
for  the  most  unspiritual  reasons,  personal  favoritism, 
political  influence,  or  money  considerations.  In  the 
Empire,  control  of  ecclesiastical  appointments  be- 
came vital  for  the  maintenance  of  the  imperial 
power  itself.  The  great  lay  fiefs  were  hereditary. 
With  them  the  emperor  could  interfere  but  little. 
But  if  he  could  control  the  heads  of  the  monasteries 
and  the  bishops,  he  could,  by  filling  these  posts  with 
his  friends,  offset  the  lay  nobility  and  raise  sufficient 
taxes  and  troops.  To  take  from  the  emperor  the 
control  of  appointment  to  the  chief  ecclesiastical  posts 
of  Germany  was  to  strike  at  the  very  foundations  on 
which  the  imperial  power  of  the  eleventh  century 
rested. 

It  was  inevitable,  however,  that  many  good  men 
looked  with  disfavor  on  this  systematic  filling  of 
ecclesiastical  posts  for  other  than  religious  reasons. 
They  felt  that  the  church  should  be  independent  of 
secular  control.  They  believed  that  if  the  papacy 
could  be  occupied  by  men  of  character  and  power, 
strong  enough  to  force  the  appointment  of  worthy 
candidates  to  church  offices,  and  to  take  from  the 
emperors  their  control,  the  religious  situation  would 


HILDEBRAND  125 

be  materially  bettered.  This  desire  first  found  or- 
ganized expression  in  a  reform  movement  known  as 
that  of  Cluny.  The  monastery  of  Cluny  had  been 
founded  in  eastern  France  in  910,  and,  though  Bene- 
dictine in  government,  had  gradually  become  the 
head  of  a  large  group  of  monastic  foundations,  owing 
allegiance  to  its  abbot.  Of  these  dependencies,  one 
was  that  of  St.  Mary  on  the  Aventine  Hill  in  Rome. 
From  the  first,  the  Cluny  movement  had  a  strongly 
reformatory  character,  its  opposition  being  directed 
against  ''Simony,"  that  is  appointment  to  ecclesias- 
tical office  for  any  other  than  religious  considerations, 
and  "  Nicolaitanism,"  meaning  any  breach  of  priestly 
celibacy,  especially  by  the  still  widely  prevalent 
marriage  of  priests.^  The  general  tendency  of 
the  Cluny  reform  was,  therefore,  to  emphasize 
the  churchly  rather  than  the  secular  forces  of  the 
time,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century, 
many  of  its  supporters  were  holding  that  by  the 
establishment  of  a  strong,  independent,  authorita- 
tive papacy  alone  could  the  desired  reforms  be 
accomplished.  The  papacy  itself  must  be  freed 
from  dependence  either  on  Roman  nobles  or  on 
emperors,  and  made  forceful  enough  to  take  high 
clerical  appointments  out  of  the  hands  of  secular 
princes. 

Cluny  principles  were  carried  to  the  papacy  itself 

I  For  the  scriptural  instances  from  which  these  names  were 
derived,  see  Acts  8:18,  19;   and  Rev.  2:14,  15. 


126     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

by  Bishop  Bruno  of  Toul,  a  relative  of  the  emperor 
Henry  III,  and  practically  appointed  by  him,  who 
became  pope  as  Leo  IX  (1048-54).  Of  high  char- 
acter, forceful,  learned,  and  popular,  he  revived  the 
prestige  of  the  papacy  by  numerous  synods  under  his 
supervision  in  Germany,  France,  and  Italy,  and  with- 
out forfeiting  imperial  support  by  too  strenuous 
opposition,  fought  "Simony"  and  " Nicolaitanism." 
Above  all,  he  brought  the  cardinalate  into  its  modern 
significance.  The  pope  had  long  had  as  his  imme- 
diate advisors  the  bishops  in  the  vicinity  of  Rome 
who  looked  up  to  him  as  their  local  archbishop,  the 
priests  in  charge  of  the  chief  churches  of  the  city,  and 
the  deacons  at  the  head  of  the  fourteen  districts  into 
which  Rome  was  divided  for  charitable  relief.  These 
had  been  almost  universally  Romans.  Leo  IX  now 
appointed  to  these  offices  men  from  anywhere  in 
western  Christendom,  thus  making  the  cardinalate 
in  a  sense  representative  of  the  church  as  a  whole — 
and  naturally,  he  chose  sympathizers  with  the  Cluny 
movement.  Under  him,  Hildebrand  came  into 
prominence,  though  as  yet  far  from  shaping  the 
papal  pohcy,  and  the  pupil  rather  than  the  teacher 
of  Leo  IX. 

Hildebrand  was  born,  in  humble  circumstances, 
in  the  region  of  Italy  known  as  Tuscany;  but  as  he 
was  early  committed  to  the  charge  of  an  uncle  who 
was  abbot  of  St.  Mary  on  the  Aventine — the  monas- 
tery of  Cluny  affiliations  in  Rome — he  always  re- 


HILDEBRAND  127 

garded  himself  as  a  Roman.  ^  There  he  grew  up, 
filled  with  Cluny  ideas,  and  we  first  meet  him  in  inti- 
mate relations  with  the  unhappy  Gregory  VI,  whom 
Henry  III  sent  into  exile  in  Germany  in  1046.  Hil- 
debrand  accompanied  that  ex-pope,  showing  thereby 
his  fidelity,  and  remained  in  Germany  till  his  patron's 
speedy  death.  Then,  probably  after  a  brief  stay  in 
Cluny  itself,  he  accompanied  the  newly  appointed 
Leo  IX  back  to  Rome.  By  Leo  he  was  ordained  a 
sub-deacon,  and  apparently  intrusted  with  much  of 
the  secular  and  financial  business  of  the  papal  see. 
Short  of  figure,  and  insignificant  in  appearance,  he 
v/as  soon  recognized  as  of  great  talents  and  iron 
determination;  and,  though  his  role  under  Leo  IX 
was  subordinate,  it  was  not  long  after  that  vigorous 
pontiff's  death  before  he  was  recognized  as  the  most 
forceful  man  in  Rome  and  the  most  efficient  sup- 
porter of  the  extreme  claims  of  the  papacy,  as  well 
as  an  energetic  opponent  of  "Simony"  and  "Nicolai- 
tanism."  Such  a  man  was  needed  to  aid  in  carrying 
the  papacy  through  the  next  stormy  years.  He  and 
his  party  would  free  it  first  of  all  from  dependence  on 
the  emperor  or  the  Roman  nobles.  It  was  a  most 
difficult  task.  Henry  III  died  in  1056,  leaving  the 
Empire  in  confusion.  Hildebrand  largely  aided  in  se- 
curing the  recognition  of  Stephen  IX  (1057-58);  but 
on  his  death,  the  cardinals  were  driven  from  Rome 

I  The  year  of  his  birth  is  unknown,  but  must  have  been  about 

I020. 


128     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

and  the  Roman  nobles  once  more  set  up  a  pope  to 
their  Hking.  A  weaker  man  than  Hildebrand  would 
have  yielded.  But,  largely  by  his  skill,  the  Romans 
were  divided,  the  consent  of  the  empress-regent  was 
secured,  and  a  reformatory  pope,  Nicholas  II  (1058- 
61)  was  chosen  by  the  exiled  cardinals  at  Siena. 

The  circumstances  of  this  choice  were  now  enacted 
into  a  new  law  regulating  papal  election  that  essen- 
tially rules  the  choice  of  popes  to  this  day.  Whether 
the  drafting  of  this  constitution  was  Hildebrand's 
own  work  may  be  doubted,  but  the  policy  which  it 
embodied  was  his.  In  terms  intentionally  indefinite, 
because  it  was  impossible  to  see  how  far  the  new 
policy  could  be  carried  out,  it  was  provided  that  in 
papal  elections  the  cardinals  should  be  the  *' leaders." 
Only  indefinite  and  wholly  secondary  rights  were 
allowed  the  emperor  or  the  Roman  people.  Further- 
more, the  cardinals  could  meet  anywhere  for  an 
election,  and  choose  the  pope  from  the  local  Roman 
congregation  only  when  they  saw  fit.  This  great 
constitution  placed  the  choice  of  the  pope  thus  in 
the  hands  of  the  cardinals,  now  mostly  of  the  reform 
party,  and  took  control  at  once  from  the  Romans  and 
the  emperors.  To  prepare  for  the  inevitable  oppo- 
sition, Hildebrand  entered  into  political  combina- 
tions with  such  Italian  forces  as  he  could,  notably 
with  the  Normans,  who  were  conquering  the  southern 
portion  of  the  peninsula.  On  the  death  of  Nicho- 
las II  the  struggle  came.     But,  thanks  primarily  to 


HILDEBRAND  129 

Hildebrand's  political  skill,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  Romans,  Germans,  and  Lombards,  at  the  end  of 
a  most  doubtful  conflict,  Hildebrand's  candidate, 
Alexander  II  (1061-73),  was  safely  secured  in  pos- 
session of  the  papacy,  which  made  great  strides 
under  his  leadership,  aided  by  Hildebrand's  abihties, 
toward  an  effective  control  not  merely  of  the  whole 
western  church,  but  of  the  political  situation  of  the 
hour.  Under  Alexander's  approval,  and  with  his  aid, 
William  the  Conqueror  gained  England  (1066),  and 
the  rulers  of  France,  Germany,  and  Denmark,  though 
unwillingly,  had  to  yield  much  to  his  demands. 

It  was  but  fitting  that  when  Alexander  II  died  in 
1073,  Hildebrand  was  chosen  his  successor,  under  the 
name  of  Gregory  VII.  His  policy  had  long  been 
determined.  To  his  thinking  the  church  is  by  divine 
appointment  superior  to  the  state,  and  the  head  of 
the  church,  the  pope,  superior  to  all  secular  princes. 
As  such,  the  pope  could  judge  their  worthiness  to 
rule,  could  depose  them  when  unfit,  and  exercise 
judgment  thus  over  the  political  as  well  as  over  the 
religious  interests  of  Christendom.  The  loftiness  of 
this  ideal  is  undeniable.  In  Hildebrand's  theory,  a 
pope,  of  high  character,  and  with  absolute  authority, 
speaking  with  divine  authority  the  moral  judgment 
of  Christendom,  should  be  the  final  arbiter  of  all 
conduct.  From  him  as  God's  representative  rulers 
should  take  commands,  and  to  him  princes  should  be 
responsible.    A  visible  Kingdom  of  God  ought  to  be 


130     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  result.  Actually  impossible  of  realization  this 
ideal  was,  but  experience  had  not  yet  proved  the  fact, 
and  Hildebrand  undoubtedly  believed  in  full  sincer- 
ity that  his  lofty  claims  were  really  those  of  the 
gospel. 

The  elements  of  the  contest  were  at  hand.  Henry 
Ill's  successor  in  Germany  was  his  son,  Henry  IV, 
now  twenty-three  years  of  age,  whose  own  disposi- 
tion and  mistakes  had  alienated  a  considerable 
portion  of  his  subjects,  notably  the  Saxons,  but  who 
was  at  his  best  in  adversity,  and  was  marked  by 
firmness,  courage,  and  resourcefulness — an  opponent 
in  no  way  to  be  despised.  Alexander  II  and  Henry 
IV  had  quarreled  over  Henry's  claim  to  fill  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Milan  as  he  wished,  and  the  dispute 
was  still  unsettled.  Alexander,  just  before  his  death, 
had  threatened  some  of  Henry's  counselors  with  ex- 
communication on  charges  of  "  Simony."  Nicholas 
II,  as  early  as  1059,  had  forbidden  all  investiture  with 
ecclesiastical  office  by  laymen,  and  Alexander  II  had 
repeated  the  prohibition.  If  Henry  persisted  in  fill- 
ing the  bishoprics  of  the  Empire,  as  he  undoubtedly 
would,  a  quarrel  was  inevitable  with  a  pope  of  Hilde- 
brand's  principles. 

But,  at  first,  the  situation  seemed  favorable  to  the 
pope.  Henry's  hands  were  tied  by  a  rebellion  of 
the  Saxons.  So  friendly  to  Hildebrand  did  he  show 
himself  in  this  distress,  that  the  pope,  in  1074,  pro- 
posed to  Henry  a  crusade  to  aid  the  hard-pressed 


HILDEBRAND  13 1 

Christians  of  the  Orient  and  to  drive  back  their 
Mohammedan  foes — the  first  and  almost  unheeded 
note  of  a  call  that  a  little  more  than  twenty  years  later 
was  to  rouse  Europe  to  the  greatest  united  effort  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  In  1075,  however,  Henry  defeated  the 
Saxons.  His  hands  were  free.  His  attitude  toward 
Hildebrand's  claims  at  once  altered.  He  nominated 
a  new  archbishop  for  Milan,  and  sought  to  draw  the 
Normans  from  the  pope.  The  open  quarrel  at  once 
began,  and  its  scenes  moved  with  tragic  swiftness. 

In  December,  1075,  Hildebrand  threatened  Henry 
with  excommunication.  In  January,  following, 
Henry,  and  the  majority  of  the  German  bishops  and 
nobles  assembled  at  Worms,  declared  Hildebrand  no 
pope,  refused  obedience,  and  ordered  him,  in  insult- 
ing terms,  to  leave  the  papal  chair.  At  the  lenten 
synod  in  Rome,  in  1076,  Hildebrand  replied  by  a 
counterblast  of  unexampled  papal  action.  He  pro- 
nounced Henry  excommunicated,  deposed  from  sov- 
ereignty, and  released  the  German  vassals  from  their 
oaths  of  allegiance.  Could  Hildebrand  make  this 
sentence  effective,  the  pope  would  be  in  truth,  what 
he  claimed,  the  ruler  of  kings  and  the  arbiter  of  the 
disputes  of  nations.  To  a  large  extent  he  succeeded 
for  the  moment.  Henry's  support  was  at  once  di- 
vided. A  great  part  of  Germany  fell  away  from 
him  in  a  measure  for  religious,  but  even  more  for 
political  reasons.  Henry  tried  vainly  to  raise  an 
army  to  march  to  Italy;  instead,  by  the  autumn  of 


132     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

1076,  his  nobles  compelled  him  to  lay  aside  all  royal 
state,  and  proposed  to  consider  his  further  continu- 
ance in  the  kingly  office  at  an  assembly  to  be  held  in 
Augsburg  beginning  February  2,  1077,  provided 
that  before  the  end  of  that  month  he  should  be 
relieved  from  excommunication.  At  this  convention 
the  pope  was  invited  to  be  present. 

It  was  now  a  vital  issue  with  Henry  to  secure  the 
removal  of  his  excommunication  before  the  fatal 
assembly  should  meet.  In  vain  he  sought  to  move 
Hildebrand  by  appeals.  He  now  resolved  on  a 
course  of  action  which  showed  him  an  adroit  politi- 
cian if  the  success  of  the  moment  is  considered,  but 
which  involved  the  most  spectacular  humiliation  of 
the  state,  as  represented  in  him,  before  the  church, 
in  the  person  of  the  pope,  that  the  Middle  Ages 
witnessed.  Escaping  with  difficulty  from  Speyer, 
Henry  made  his  way  over  the  Alps  just  before 
Christmas,  determined  to  meet  Hildebrand  as  the 
pope  journeyed  toward  Augsburg.  Hildebrand,  un- 
certain of  Henry's  intentions,  sought  refuge  in  the 
strong  castle  of  Canossa,  belonging  to  his  de- 
voted supporter,  Matilda,  Marchioness  of  Tuscany. 
Thither  Henry  hurried,  not  as  a  warrior  but  as  a 
penitent.  The  pope  at  first  refused  to  receive  him, 
as  the  decision  of  the  future  of  the  German  kingship 
at  such  an  assembly  as  that  proposed  at  Augsburg, 
under  papal  guidance,  would  have  been  a  mighty  tri- 
umph for  Hildebrand's  claims.    Henry  was  deter- 


HILDEBRAND  133 

mined  to  forestall  that  result  by  such  a  humiliation  of 
apparent  repentance  that,  in  deference  to  public 
opinion,  the  pope  must  remove  the  excommunication. 
On  three  successive  days  he  appeared  barefoot,  and  in 
penitential  attire,  before  the  castle  gate.  It  was  such 
a  manifestation  of  contrition  as  was  then  expected  of 
great  offenders,  and  could  hardly  be  rejected,  how- 
ever its  real  sincerity  might  be  doubted.  So,  against 
his  wishes,  on  January  28, 1077,  Hildebrand  admitted 
Henry  to  communion,  though  leaving  the  question  of 
his  restoration  to  the  kingdom  still  open.  For  Henry 
this  was  enough.  He  was  able  now  to  render  ineffect- 
ive the  dreaded  assembly  at  Augsburg ;  though  a  rival 
king  was  chosen  in  the  person  of  Rudolf  of  Swabia, 
by  his  German  opponents.  He  was  once  more  the 
head  of  a  large  force  in  his  own  land.  He  had  saved 
his  throne,  and  in  many  respects  thwarted  the  pope, 
though  at  the  cost  of  a  terrible  humiliation  of  his  own 
dignity,  and  dishonor  to  his  own  conscience,  for  his 
"repentance"  at  Canossa  had  never  been  more  than 
a  political  expedient.  For  the  next  three  years, 
1077-80,  Hildebrand  held  a  largely  neutral  position 
between  the  two  rival  German  kings,  helping  neither 
effectively,  but  striving  to  have  their  claims,  and, 
therefore,  the  determination  of  the  rightful  sover- 
eignty of  the  Empire,  submitted  to  his  decision.  In 
this  he  failed,  and  finding  he  must  take  sides  openly 
he  favored  Rudolf,  and  once  more,  in  March,  1080, 
pronounced  Henry  excommunicated,  deposed,  and 


134     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

his  subjects  released  from  allegiance.  The  same 
weapons  of  political  warfare  can  seldom  twice  be 
used  effectively.  This  time  the  papal  sentence 
produced  little  effect.  Public  opinion  in  Germany 
had  turned  against  Hildebrand;  and  the  death  of 
Rudolf,  in  October,  1080,  placed  Henry  in  a  stronger 
position  than  he  had  ever  thus  far  enjoyed.  Henry 
now  determined  to  carry  the  struggle  to  Rome  itself. 
After  long  efforts,  he  captured  an  important  part  of 
the  city  in  June,  1083.  Even  now  he  would  recog- 
nize Hildebrand's  papacy,  provided  the  pope  would 
give  up  opposition  to  lay  appointments.  But  Hilde- 
brand had  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and  abso- 
lutely refused  to  compromise  his  claims.  Many, 
even  of  his  cardinals,  now  regarded  Hildebrand's 
cause  as  lost,  and  fell  away  from  him.  In  March, 
1084,  Henry  placed  a  partisan  of  his  own  as  Clement 
III,  on  the  papal  throne.  Hildebrand  held  only  the 
Roman  fortress,  the  Castle  of  San  Angelo.  The 
coming  of  the  Normans  to  his  aid  alone  saved  him 
from  falling  into  Henry's  power ;  but  their  cruel  plun- 
dering of  Rome  embittered  the  Romans  themselves 
against  him  as  the  cause  of  this  devastation.  When 
the  Normans  withdrew  he  had  to  go  under  their  pro- 
tection, leaving  Clement  III  in  possession  of  the  papal 
city.  At  Salerno  the  sad  remaining  months  of  his 
life  were  spent,  and  there  he  died,  in  exile,  on  May  25, 
1085. 
Hildebrand's  relations  to  Henry  only  have  been 


HILDEBRAND  135 

considered.  Did  space  permit,  it  would  be  interesting 
to  trace  his  dealings  with  England,  France,  Spain, 
and  Denmark.  Everywhere  he  pursued  the  same 
policy,  though  nowhere  was  the  conflict  so  sharp 
or  so  picturesque  as  with  Germany.  His  ideal  was 
a  divinely  appointed  church,  having  its  highest  rep- 
resentative in  the  pope,  ruling  the  affairs  of  men. 
With  equal  zeal  he  fought,  also,  against  "Simony" 
and  "  Nicolaitanism."  Apparently  he  died  defeated. 
Really,  the  firmness  with  which  he  fought  brought  a 
large  degree  of  victory  to  his  cause.  He  lives  in 
history  as  the  ideal  of  a  mediaeval  pope.  He  placed 
the  papacy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  if  not  superior  to  all 
worldly  powers  as  he  wished,  at  least  equal  to  any  of 
them.  His  ideas  lived  after  him.  In  1122,  when 
Henry  IV  had  been  succeeded  by  Henry  V  and 
Cahxtus  II  was  on  the  papal  throne,  the  Concordat 
of  Worms  largely  settled  the  dispute  with  Germany 
by  a  compromise  on  the  whole  favorable  to  papal 
claims.  Each  bishop  or  abbot  was  to  receive  his 
investiture  with  spiritual  authority  from  the  church, 
his  temporal  possessions  from  the  state.  It  was  by 
no  means  all  that  Hildebrand  wished,  but  it  assured 
the  independent  share  of  the  church  in  all  ecclesiasti- 
cal elections,  and  the  impulse  toward  sovereignty 
given  by  him  to  the  papacy  was  long  enduring.  In 
methods  he  was  unscrupulous;  in  his  own  personal 
religious  Hfe  simple  and  sincere.  That  he  believed 
his  cause  that  of  God  there  can  be  no  question.     It 


136     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

is  equally  evident  that  he  had  departed  widely  from 
the  conceptions  of  the  gospel,  and  that  his  principles 
are  utterly  impossible  of  application  to  the  modern 
world. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  geographical  and  political  circumstances  aided 
the  growth  of  the  papacy? 

2.  What  were  the  claims  of  Innocent  I  and  Leo  I  ? 

3.  What  effect  had  the  Germanic  invasions  on  the  papacy  ? 
Its  relations  to  the  new  monarchies  ? 

4.  What  was  the  influence  of  Nicholas  I  ? 

5.  Describe  the  mediaeval  theory  of  the  relations  of  church 
and  state.     Was  it  possible  to  realize  it  in  practice  ? 

6.  What  was  the  "Holy  Roman  Empire"  ?  Speak  of  inter- 
ferences of  the  German  Empire  with  the  papacy. 

7.  Describe  the  origin  and  aims  of  the  Cluny  reform  move- 
ment.    What  was  meant  by  "Simony"  and  " Nicolaitanism "  ? 

8.  How  were  Cluny  principles  advanced  by  Leo  IX? 
What  is  the  cardinalate  ?     How  did  Leo  IX  modify  it  ? 

9.  Outline  Hildebrand's  early  career.  What  were  his 
aims? 

10.  What  modification  in  the  method  of  choosing  popes  was 
effected  under  Nicholas  II  ?     Its  purpose  and  permanency  ? 

11.  Outline  Hildebrand's  contest  with  Henry  IV.  What 
did  Hildebrand  attempt  to  take  from  Henry  ?  Why  ?  What 
principles  were  involved  ? 

12.  What  was  the  scene  at  Canossa?  How  did  it  come 
to  be?  What  advantages  did  Henry  draw  from  it?  What 
was  its  larger  significance  ? 

13.  How  did  Hildebrand's  struggle  with  Henry  end? 
When  and  where  did  Hildebrand  die  ? 

14.  Estimate  the  results  of  Hildebrand's  work. 


HILDEBRAND  137 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

W.  R.  W.  Stephens,  Hildebrand  and  His  Time  (New  York,  no 
date)  ("Epochs  of  Church  History"  Series). 

Marvin  R.  Vincent,  The  Age  of  Hildebrand  (New  York,  1896). 

James  Bryce,  The  Holy  Roman  Empire  (New  York,  1904). 

Ephraim  Emerton,  Mediaeval  Europe  (Boston,  1894,  pp. 
135-269). 

Schaff  (continued  by  David  S.  Schaff),  History  of  the  Christian 
Church  (New  York,  1907),  V,  Pt.  I,  1-80. 


GODFREY 


VIII 
GODFREY 

It  will  be  remembered  that  during  the  brief  season 
at  the  beginning  of  his  pontificate  in  which  Hilde- 
brand  cherished  the  thought  that  Henry  IV  would 
yield  to  his  wishes  he  proposed  to  that  monarch  a 
crusade  to  aid  the  eastern  Empire  and  to  resist 
recent  Moslem  advances  (1074).^  The  immediate 
occasion  of  his  proposal  was  the  conquest  of  Asia 
Minor  by  the  Seljuk  Turks.  Doubtless  the  zeal 
of  the  great  pope  who  first  planned  a  crusade  was 
stimulated  in  part  by  the  hope  that  it  would  bring 
the  Greek  church  into  obedience  to  Rome ;  but  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  was  in  this  proposal,  as 
in  so  much  else,  the  interpreter  of  the  spirit  of  his 
age,  and  that  conceptions  of  a  vitally  religious  nature 
had  a  large  share  in  the  formation  of  his  plan. 

All  religions  have  exliibited  a  strong  tendency  to 
the  veneration  of  sacred  places.  Christianity  has 
been  no  exception.  By  the  time  of  the  conversion  of 
the  Roman  Empire  the  graves  and  relics  of  the 
marytrs  were  held  in  high  honor ;  and  this  reverence 
rapidly  grew.  Chief  of  all  sacred  places  where  it 
was  thought  prayer  would  more  readily  be  heard, 
and  whither  pilgrimages  were  meritorious,  was  the 

I  Ante,  p.  130. 

141 


142     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

land  where  Christ  had  walked  with  his  disciples, 
had  suffered,  lain  in  the  tomb,  and  risen  again.  To 
see  the  scenes  on  which  he  had  gazed,  to  kneel 
where  he  was  born,  to  pray  where  his  body  had  been 
buried,  seemed  to  be  in  some  sense  to  draw  near  to 
him.  Hence  Constantine  founded  great  churches 
in  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem,  and  pilgrimages  thither 
became  at  once  frequent.  These  journeys  to  the 
holy  places  continued  throughout  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Mohammedans  in 
637  placed  the  sacred  sites  in  Moslem  control,  but 
for  the  most  part,  the  pilgrims,  though  taxed, 
were  not  interrupted.  The  conquest  of  Palestine 
by  the  Seljuk  Turks  altered  the  situation.  Their 
fanatical  zeal  destroyed  churches,  oppressed  the 
native  Christians,  and  made  pilgrimages  exceedingly 
dangerous. 

This  momentous  change  in  the  situation  in  Pales- 
tine occurred  when  religious  enthusiasm  in  the  West, 
especially  where  the  Cluny  movement  was  powerful, 
was  producing  what  can  be  described  as  nothing  less 
than  a  religious  revival.  That  revival  was  accom- 
panied by  an  emphasis  on  the  future  life,  and  an 
outburst  of  religious  mysticism,  that  was  the  more 
intense  because  of  the  general  misery  in  which  all 
classes  of  society  found  themselves,  by  reason  of 
famines,  constant  warfare,  and  general  unrest.  To 
men  in  a  world  which  offered  so  little  of  peace  or 
comfort,  the  heaven  of  the  gospels  appealed  as  an 


GODFREY  143 

unspeakable  boon;   but  the  age  was  rough,  violent, 
and  gross,  and  men  have  perhaps  never  been  more 
conscious  of  their  unfitness  for  heaven  than  then. 
No  better  way  thither  could  they  conceive  than  to 
journey  in  penitence  to  pray  where  Christ  had  suf- 
fered and  been  glorified.     Then,  too,  the  age  was  one 
of  knightly  adventure.     In  particular,  the  Normans 
had  recently  conquered  England  and  southern  Italy, 
and  were  fighting  with  the  Moslems  in  Sicily.     They 
were  eager,  adventure-loving.     The  Crusades  were    | 
to  appeal  to  three  great  passions:    desire  to  come    I 
near  to  Christ  by  following  in  his  earthly  footsteps;  / 
longing  for  forgiveness  of  sins  by  the  performance  of  / 
some  great  act  pleasing  to  God ;  and  love  of  adventure  / 
promising    fighting,    booty,    territorial    aggrandize- 
ment, and  betterment  of  prospects  in  life.     Some 
were  moved  primarily  by  one,  some  by  another  of 
these  motives ;  but  in  many  all  three  were  so  blended 
that  it  seems  impossible  to  say  which  predominated. 
We  should  misjudge  the  Crusaders  if  we  did  not 
recognize  that  they  felt  they  were  doing  something 
for  Christ ;  we  should  credit  them  with  far  too  great 
disinterestedness  if  we  did  not  also  perceive  that  they 
were  doing  something  very  human  for  themselves. 

The  actual  impulse  to  the  First  Crusade  came  from 
an  appeal  of  the  hard-pressed  emperor  at  Constanti- 
nople to  Urban  II.  That  able  pope  (1088-99)  ^^^ 
by  birth  a  Frenchman,  had  been  a  member  of  the 
Cluny  order,  and  president  of  the  cardinals  under 


144     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Hildebrand,  whose  purposes  and  ideals  he  fully 
shared,  though  of  a  far  more  conciliatory  spirit.  He 
had  maintained  the  Hildebrandian  cause  with  great 
skill,  and  in  March,  1095,  i^  ^^e  pursuit  of  that  con- 
trol, he  held  a  council  of  Piacenza,  in  northern  Italy. 
Here  the  emperor  Alexios  presented  his  appeal 
through  his  messengers.  The  pope  gave  it  a  favor- 
able hearing;  but  the  matrimonial  irregularities  of 
King  Philip  I  of  France  led  him  to  summon  a  further 
council  at  Clermont,  in  that  land,  for  November, 
that  the  king's  misdeeds  might  there  be  considered, 
and  to  this  council  Urban  determined  to  present  the 
thought  of  a  crusade,  not  now,  primarily,  to  help  the 
eastern  emperor,  but  for  the  rescue  of  the  sacred 
places  from  Moslem  hands.  To  Urban  II  was  due 
the  conception  of  a  crusade,  in  the  form  which  was 
actually  to  appeal  to  Europe;  to  his  great  teacher 
Hildebrand  was  due  the  origin  of  the  idea  of  a  crusade 
in  any  form.  Urban' s  thought  was  more  purely 
religious  than  Hildebrand's  had  been.  It  was  not 
the  help  of  the  eastern  Empire,  or  the  extension  of 
p  pal  authority,  that  he  had  in  mind  so  much  as 
Christian  control  of  the  land  hallowed  by  the  earthly 
life  of  Christ. 

As  the  plan  of  the  Crusade  was  Urban's,  so  the 
impulse  which  set  the  armies  in  motion  came  from 
him.  To  the  assembled  multitude  at  Clermont  he 
spoke  on  November  27,  1095,  in  words  which  have 
not  been  exactly  preserved,  but  the  general  purport 


GODFREY  145 

and  effect  of  which  are  clear.  He  pictured  the  in- 
sults offered  to  the  Christians  and  sacred  places  of 
the  Holy  Land,  he  called  on  western  Christendom 
to  cleanse  the  holy  sites  from  such  unbelievers,  and 
promised  the  divine  blessing  on  the  undertaking. 
As  he  ended,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  hearers  swept  all 
before  it.  "God  wishes  it,"  they  shouted,  and 
pledged  themselves  by  hundreds  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  task. 

The  pope's  summons  was  taken  up,  throughout 
the  length  of  France  and  the  Rhineland,  by  preachers 
who  fanned  the  enthusiasm  for  the  Crusade,  of 
whom  the  most  famous,  and  probably  the  ablest,  was 
Peter,  called  "the  Hermit,"  or  "of  Amiens,"  from 
the  city  of  northern  France  in  or  near  which  he  was 
born.  Slight,  gray-bearded,  ascetic,  eloquent,  he 
fired  men's  hearts  for  the  work.  Later  tradition, 
and  probably  a  desire,  also,  to  claim  for  monasti- 
cism  a  leading  share  in  the  great  enterprise,  repre- 
sented Peter  as  the  originator  of  the  Crusade.  That 
he  was  not.*  The  honor  belonged  to  Urban  II,  but 
of  his  power  as  a  preacher  there  can  be  no  question. 
He  was,  however,  but  one  of  many  preachers  whom 
the  pope's  zeal  and  popular  enthusiasm  aroused. 

Under  the  impulse  thus  given  thousands  of  the 
lower  classes,  ill  prepared,  and  ill  led,  started  from 

^  The  ablest  recent  defense  of  a  greater  share  by  Peter  in  the 
origin  of  the  Crusade  than  is  here  assigned  him  is  that  of  David 
S.  Schafif,  in  SchaflF's  History  0}  the  Christian  Church,  V,  Pt.  I, 
241-45.     To  the  writer  it  is  not  wholly  convincing. 


146     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

France  and  the  Rhineland  in  the  spring  of  1096. 
One  such  band  was  under  the  lead  of  Peter  himself. 
But  their  own  disorders  won  the  hatred  of  the  peoples 
through  whose  lands  they  passed,  especially  in  Hun- 
gary and  the  Balkan  countries.  They  reached  Con- 
stantinople with  fearful  losses,  and  proved  utterly 
unable  to  do  effective  work  against  the  Turks.  The 
real  task  of  the  Crusade  was  to  be  accomplished 
under  the  lead  of  the  feudal  nobility  of  the  age. 
Four  main  armies  were  raised:  one  from  the  region 
of  the  lower  Rhine;  a  second  from  southern  France 
under  Count  Raymond  of  Toulouse;  a  third  from 
the  Normans  of  southern  Italy,  having  as  leaders 
Bohemond  and  Tancred ;  and  a  fourth  under  counts 
Robert  of  Normandy  and  Stephen  of  Blois,  from  the 
territories  of  France  which  their  titles  indicated.  Of 
these  armies,  the  first  named  chiefly  concerns  us. 

The  forces  from  the  Rhineland,  which  may  have 
numbered  ten  thousand  horsemen  and  thirty  thou- 
sand foot  soldiers,  were  under  the  general  leadership 
— it  can  hardly  be  called  a  command  in  the  modern 
sense — of  the  noblest  knightly  character  that  the  First 
Crusade  produced,  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  duke  of 
Lower  Lorraine,  a  region  embracing  territories  now 
included  in  northern  and  eastern  Belgium  and 
stretching  southward  over  a  portion  of  what  is  now 
northern  France  and  western  Germany.^  Born 
about  1060,  he  was  the  son  of  an  earnestly  religious 

I  Bouillon  itself  is  in  extreme  southeastern  Belgium. 


GODFREY  147 

mother.  His  churchly  sympathies  did  not  prevent 
him,  however,  from  taking  an  active  part  on  the  side 
of  Henry  IV  in  the  campaign  in  Italy  which  resuhed 
in  the  political  downfall  of  Hildebrand.  What  led 
him  to  the  Crusade  we  do  not  know;  but  his  land  was 
deeply  penetrated  by  the  Cluny  spirit,  and  in  the 
years  immediately  preceding  the  expedition  it  had 
suffered  in  unusual  degree  from  famine  and  conse- 
quent misery.  To  him,  as  to  his  brothers  and  com- 
panions Eustace  and  Baldwin,  and  to  the  Crusaders 
generally,  the  call  was  not  merely  to  service  but  to 
sacrifice.  He  sold  or  mortgaged  a  large  part  of  his 
possessions,  parting  even  with  the  castle  of  Bouillon, 
for  the  expenses  of  the  great  undertaking. 

In  August,  1096,  the  long  march  was  begun. 
They  journeyed  probably  up  the  Rhine  and  down  the 
Danube  nearly  to  Vienna,  then  across  Hungary  to 
Belgrade,  the  skill  and  good  faith  of  Godfrey  defend- 
ing them  from  many  of  the  hostilities  from  which  the 
peasant  bands  of  Crusaders  had  deservedly  suffered. 
From  Belgrade,  where  they  entered  the  territories 
of  the  emperor  Alexios,  they  pushed  forward  by 
Sofia,  PhilippopoHs,  and  Adrianople,  to  Constanti- 
nople, reaching  there  two  days  before  Christmas, 
after  a  march  of  not  less  than  1,450  miles.  Here, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  city,  the  winter  was  spent, 
waiting  for  the  other  crusading  armies,  and  in  con- 
stant, sometimes  warlike,  controversy  with  Alexios, 
who  wished  to  be  free  of  such  troublesome  guests. 


148     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

In  these  disputes  the  wisdom  and  firmness  of  Godfrey 
were  conspicuously  evidenced. 

By  the  spring  of  1097  all  was  ready  for  the  ad- 
vance. On  May  6  the  Christian  army  laid  siege 
to  the  first  city  in  Turkish  territory,  the  ancient 
Nicaea,  where  Constantine  had  held  the  first  general 
council  in  325.^  The  crusading  host  had  no  single 
commander,  but,  on  June  19,  Nicaea  surrendered  to 
Alexios,  justly  hoping  to  be  better  treated  by  him 
than  by  the  Crusaders,  and  the  first  success  of  the 
expedition  was  achieved.  Thence  the  army  marched 
diagonally  across  Asia  Minor  toward  the  ancient 
province  of  Cilicia.  At  Dorylaeum,  about  180  miles 
from  Constantinople,  what  seemed  at  first  a  defeat 
was  turned,  on  July  i,  into  a  great  crusading  victory 
that  opened  free  way  for  the  further  march  of  the 
army.  But  thenceforward  nearly  till  Iconium  was 
reached,  it  suffered  terrible  losses  from  hunger  and 
thirst  under  the  scorching  summer  sun.  Thence, 
by  a  long  circle  to  the  northeast  through  the  ancient 
Cappadocian  Caesarea  (Kaisariyeh  and  Marash), 
they  journeyed,  till  on  October  20, 1097,  they  reached 
Antioch,  where  the  disciples  had  first  been  called 
Christians,'  the  strongest  city  of  Syria. 

Such  a  place  would  have  been  formidable  to  any 
army  before  the  use  of  canon.  To  the  Crusaders, 
unaccustomed  to  large  cities,  it  seemed  an  almost 
insurmountable  obstacle.     With  its  sieges  and  the 

I  Ante,  p.  51.  ^  Acts  11:26. 


GODFREY  149 

successful  repulse  of  the  Turkish  army  that  came  to 
its  relief  the  highest  military  achievements  of  the 
Crusade  were  associated.  By  immense  effort  the 
Christian  forces  carried  on  the  siege  from  October, 
1097,  to  the  following  June,  and  even  then  would  not 
have  become  masters  of  the  city  had  it  not  been  for 
the  aid  of  one  of  its  inhabitants  who  enabled  them 
to  effect  a  lodgment  on  its  lofty  walls.  Its  capture 
was  none  too  soon,  for  the  Turkish  sultan,  Kerboga 
of  Mossul,  was  on  his  way  with  an  immense  relieving 
army.  Most  courageously  delayed  at  Edessa  by  the 
pluck  of  Godfrey's  brother,  Baldwin,  Kerboga  did 
not  reach  Antioch  till  two  days  after  its  capture 
(June  5).  The  Christians  now  found  themselves 
besieged  in  the  city  which  had  so  recently  fallen  into 
their  hands.  With  little  food,  and  surrounded  by  an 
immense  army,  many  now  gave  themselves  up  to  de- 
spair; but  the  enthusiasm  of  others  was  heightened. 
Men  believed  they  saw  visions  in  which  Christ  and 
the  saints  promised  help.  It  was  thought  that  the 
very  lance  head  that  pierced  the  Savior's  side  as  he 
hung  on  the  cross  was  found  beneath  the  floor  of  the 
Church  of  St.  Peter  and  would  bring  sure  victory. 
Thus  encouraged,  the  host  marched  out,  in  desperate 
effort,  and  on  June  28,  in  a  tremendous  battle,  put 
Kerboga  and  his  Moslem  army  completely  to  flight. 
In  all  this  Godfrey  bore  his  full  share,  but  his 
part  was  not  as  distinguished  as  that  of  Bohemond  or 
Tancred.      Godfrey,  however,  had  in  mind  more 


150     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

than  any  of  the  other  leaders  the  main  purpose  of 
the  Crusade,  and  while  Bohemond  and  Raymond 
quarreled  as  to  whose  Antioch  should  be,  and  the 
Christian  leaders  tried  to  make  conquests  in  its  vicin- 
ity, he  urged  an  advance  on  Jerusalem.  It  was  not 
till  May,  1099,  however,  that  the  army  started.  On 
June  7  it  was  in  sight  of  the  Holy  City.  It  had  seen 
tremendous  fighting  and  had  accomplished  a  march 
since  the  Crusade  began  of  not  less  than  2,500  miles. 
As  rank  after  rank  beheld  Jerusalem  the  Crusaders 
fell  on  their  knees  in  gratitude  that  the  goal  of  their 
pilgrimage  was  so  close  at  hand.  But  severe  contest 
was  needful  before  the  city  was  theirs.  Jerusalem  is 
strong  of  situation  and  was  bravely  defended.  On 
July  15,  the  Crusaders,  Godfrey  among  the  first, 
effected  a  lodgment  on  the  wall,  and  Jerusalem  was 
soon  theirs.  Mercy  was  no  thought  of  the  victors. 
The  Mohammedan  inhabitants  were  slain ;  and  their 
bloody  work  accomplished,  the  Crusaders  marched 
in  penitential  thanksgiving  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulcher.  The  work  was  done.  The  goal  was 
reached,  which  had  cost  such  suffering  and  so  many 
lives.  It  remained  now  to  provide  for  the  govern- 
ment and  defense  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  for  the 
majority  of  the  surviving  Crusaders  to  seek  the  homes 
that  they  had  left  three  years  before. 

On  July  22,  1099,  the  leaders  at  Jerusalem  unani- 
mously chose  Godfrey  as  head  of  the  new  state.  He 
took  for  his  title  "Protector  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher." 


GODFREY  151 

There  was  in  him  that  which  commanded  general 
trust.  His  modesty,  his  steadfastness,  his  courage, 
his  simple  piety,  all  commended  him,  and  of  all  the 
leaders  it  was  most  fitting  that  he  should  keep  what 
had  been  won.  One  task  remained  to  be  done  before 
the  main  body  of  the  Crusaders  could  depart.  The 
Moslem  ruler  of  Egypt  was  sending  a  large  army  to 
avenge  the  capture  of  Jerusalem.  On  August  12,  it 
was  wholly  defeated  near  Ascalon,  and  the  last  great 
danger  that  threatened  the  new  conquests  of  the 
Crusaders  was  overcome.  The  Christian  territories, 
divided  in  feudal  fashion  under  princes,  counts,  and 
barons,  now  stretched  from  Tarsus  and  Edessa  on 
the  north  to  the  southern  borders  of  ancient  Philistia 
on  the  south — a  realm  greater  than  that  of  David. 

Godfrey  did  not  long  survive  his  entrance  on  his 
new  and  responsible  office.  On  July  18,  iioo,  he 
died,  universally  lamented,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  in  Jerusalem.  He 
was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  Baldwin  I  (i  100-18), 
who  did  not  hesitate  to  take  the  kingly  title.  The 
region  so  hardly  won  could  not  be  held  save  by  con- 
stant fighting;  and  a  steady  stream  of  knights  and 
humbler  folk  poured  from  the  West  to  the  Holy 
Land,  most  of  whom  gave  their  lives  in  the  cause,  or 
perished  from  the  hardships  and  illnesses  incident 
to  the  journey.  To  aid  in  the  defense  of  the  sacred 
places,  a  miHtary  order,  pledged  to  monastic  vows 
and  to  fight  for  the  Christian  possessions  in  the 


152     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Orient,  the  Templars,  was  organized  in  1118;  and 
soon  after  1130  a  brotherhood  founded  for  the  care 
of  the  ill  in  Jerusalem,  the  Hospitallers,  or  Knights 
of  St.  John,  was  reorganized  with  a  similar  aim.  In 
1 198  the  Teutonic  Knights  were  established.  These 
orders  attracted  the  gifts  of  hundreds  at  home  who 
could  not  themselves  take  part  in  a  crusade,  but  who 
could  thus  share  in  the  cause  as  those  now  interested 
in  missions  may  do  by  the  support  of  missionary 
societies. 

The  Holy  Land  was  pressed  hard  by  the  Moslems. 
From  1 147  to  11 49  a  second  great  crusade  under 
Conrad  III  of  Germany  and  Louis  VII  of  France 
sought  its  relief;  but  failed  miserably  in  Asia  Minor 
and  before  Damascus.  In  October,  1187,  the  Mo- 
hammedan leader,  Saladin,  took  Jerusalem  from  the 
Christians  who  had  held  it  since  1099.  A  third  great 
crusade,  led  by  Frederick  Barbarossa  of  Germany, 
Philip  II  of  France,  and  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  of 
England,  sought  to  regain  it;  but  wholly  failed.  The 
crusading  spirit  was  now  largely  spent,  though  sub- 
sequent expeditions  took  place,  some  of  them  on  a 
large  scale.  None  had,  however,  the  enthusiam  and 
success  of  the  First  Crusade.  The  zeal  for  the  Holy 
Land  gradually  died  out,  and,  in  1291,  the  Christians 
lost  the  last  of  their  hard-won  possessions  on  the 
mainland  of  Palestine. 

The  crusading  movement  was  the  highest  exempli- 
fication of  the  Hildebrandian  idea  of  the  church. 


GODFREY  153 

All  Christendom,  aroused  by  the  pope  as  its  spiritual 
head,  should  lay  aside  its  worldly  interests  and  strive 
for  the  rescue  of  the  holy  places.  But  the  appeal  of 
the  movement  was  to  a  feeling  far  deeper  than  honor 
for  the  papacy  or  obedience  to  its  call.  It  was  the 
desire  to  draw  near  to  Christ  by  following  in  his 
earthly  footsteps  that  animated  such  a  man  as  God- 
frey to  suffer  and  to  dare.  We  may  hold  that  the 
Crusades  showed  little  appreciation  of  the  real  spirit 
of  Christianity;  but  we  cannot  understand  the  Chris- 
tianity of  their  age  without  seeing  in  them  a  great 
embodiment  of  the  conception  of  the  religious  life 
then  prevalent. 

Viewed  narrowly  in  the  light  of  what  they  directly 
accomplished,  the  Crusades  were  a  failure.  They 
cost  the  lives  of  thousands.  They  failed  permanently 
to  hold  the  Holy  Land.  But  their  effect  on  the  intel- 
lectual Hfe  of  Europe  was  worth  all  they  cost.  They 
broke  up  the  isolation  which  had  prevailed  since  the 
Germanic  invasions.  They  united  western  Europe  in 
a  common  enterprise.  They  opened  men's  eyes  to 
the  world  as  they  revealed  the  splendid  cities  and  the 
civilization  of  the  East.  They  aroused  Italian  com- 
merce, and  made  the  revived  influence  of  that  land 
possible.  The  century  and  a  half  which  followed  their 
beginning  saw  an  awakening  of  Europe,  religiously, 
intellectually,  and  artistically,  which,  though  much 
less  thorough,  can  only  be  compared  with  that  which 
took  place  in  the  closing  years  of  the  fifteenth  and 


154     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  centuries,  when  a  similar 
enlargement  of  men's  mental  outlook  was  to  be 
effected  by  the  revival  of  learning,  the  discovery  of 
the  New  World,  and  the  opening  of  the  sea  route  to 
India.  The  beginnings  of  some  features  of  this 
awakening,  indeed,  antedated  the  Crusades,  but  all 
received  powerful  influence  from  that  great  enter- 
prise. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  With  whom  did  the  idea  of  a  crusade  originate?  Why 
was  it  not  then  carried  out  ? 

2.  What  were  the  causes  of  the  Crusades  ? 

3.  From  whom,  how,  and  when  did  the  actual  call  to  the 
First  Crusade  come  ?    The  response  ? 

4.  What  was  the  real  share  of  Peter  the  Hermit  ?  What 
has  been  ascribed  to  him  ? 

5.  From  what  regions  did  the  main  armies  come  ? 

6.  What  was  the  early  history  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  ? 

7.  What  were  the  preparations  made  for  the  Crusade? 
Describe  its  march.     Nicaea  ?     Dorylaeum  ?     Antioch  ? 

8.  How  was  the  Crusade  hindered  by  internal  causes  ? 

9.  What  share  did  Godfrey  have  in  the  capture  of  Jerusa- 
lem? To  what  office  was  he  chosen?  How  long  did  he 
serve  ?    His  death  ?     His  character  ? 

10.  What  were  the  military  orders  ?  How  were  they  sup- 
ported ? 

11.  Were  there  other  crusades?  What  was  the  ultimate 
fate  of  Palestine  ? 

12.  What  do  the  Crusades  illustrate?    Their  value? 


GODFREY  155 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

James  M.  Ludlow,  The  Age  of  the  Crusades  (New  York,  1896). 
Ephraim  Emerton,  Mediaeval  Europe  (Boston,  1894),  pp.  357- 

97. 
G.  W.   Cox,   The  Crusades   ("Epochs  of  History"   Series) 

(Boston,  1874). 
Schaff  (continued  by  David  S.  Schaff),  History  of  the  Christian 

Church  (New  York,  1907),  V,  Pt.  I,  211-307. 


FRANCIS 


IX 
FRANCIS 

In  following  the  experiences  of  a  crusader  such  as 
Godfrey  one  aspect  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Middle 
Ages  has  been  considered.  It  would  be  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  the  only  type,  or  to  conclude  that  the 
churchly  ideal  of  a  Hildebrand  or  an  Urban  II,  was 
the  only  form  in  which  religion  appeared.  Besides, 
and  not  infrequently  antagonistic  to  the  largely  po- 
litical conceptions  of  the  popes  and  high  clergy,  there 
was  widely  manifested  a  relatively  simple  religious 
spirit  that  sought  to  find  its  expression  in  a  literal 
acceptance  of  what  it  believed  to  be  Christ's  com- 
mands and  an  imitation  of  his  life.  The  age  was 
crude.  Its  conception  of  religion  was  ascetic;  and 
the  only  kind  of  imitation  of  Christ  and  the  apostles 
which  most  men  could  grasp  was  an  imitation  in 
externals.  Christ  and  his  disciples  had  been  poor. 
''Apostolic  poverty"  was  therefore  a  mark  of  the 
truly  consecrated  life.  He  never  married.  The 
disciples  should  so  imitate  him.  He  sent  forth  his 
disciples  two  by  two,  to  preach,  wearing  sandals, 
without  money,  and  depending  on  the  gifts  of  their 
hearers  for  their  support.  So  his  disciples  should 
now  go.  He  told  them  to  use  a  fixed  form  of  prayer. 
That  should  constitute  their  only  public  petition.  He 
forbade  them  to  swear.  They  should  take  no  oaths. 
159 


i6o    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Probably  there  has  never  been  a  time  when  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  Christ's  commands  to  the 
apostles/  interpreted  in  the  most  literal  fashion, 
seemed  to  so  many  earnest  souls  the  charter  of  con- 
duct, however  inferior  their  actual  practice  might  be. 
Nor  was  the  feeling  of  Christian  men  different  in  that 
age  from  what  it  is  now.  They  and  we  alike  desire  to 
imitate  Christ ;  but  we  see  that  real  imitation  is  like- 
ness of  spirit.  That  age  grasped  such  imitation  im- 
perfectly. To  be  like  him  and  the  apostles  in  the 
circumstances  of  their  lives  was  what  men  could  most 
easily  conceive. 

It  was  evident  that,  if  ''apostolic  poverty"  is  the 
Christian  ideal,  the  rich  prelates  and  the  monks  in 
wealthy  cloisters  were  not  living  the  Christian  life. 
So  many  thought ;  and  the  result  was  not  merely  the 
inauguration  of  many  reform  movements  in  the 
church  itself,  but  of  sects  that  broke  or  were  driven 
from  its  communion,  and  a  widespread  revival  of 
ancient  Manichaean  or  Gnostic  speculations  with 
their  denunciation  of  all  that  savored  of  the  material 
world  as  evil. 

Of  these  movements  that  most  foreign  to  the 
genius  of  Christianity,  though  holding  itself  Chris- 
tian, was  known  as  that  of  the  Cathari.  Though 
Manichaeanism,  such  as  existed  in  Augustine's 
time,'  probably  persisted  in  western  Christendom, 

I  Matt.,  chaps.  5  to  7;   10:1-13;  Luke  9: 1-6. 
3  Ante,  p.  69. 


FRANCIS  l6l 

the  main  impulse  toward  Catharite  views  seems  to 
have  come  into  France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  nearly 
a  century  before  the  Crusades,  from  the  Orient. 
Like  the  ancient  Manichaeans,  the  Cathari  held  that 
the  universe  is  the  scene  of  eternal  conflict  between 
two  powers,  the  one  good,  the  other  evil.  Matter  is 
the  work  of  the  evil  power.  The  Old  Testament  is 
largely  his  book.  The  good  God,  revealed  by  Christ, 
is  to  be  served  spiritually,  by  simple  worship,  without 
elaborate  churches  or  ritual,  and  by  abstinence  as 
far  as  possible  from  defiling  contact  with  the  world 
of  matter  through  marriage,  landed  possessions,  or 
the  eating  of  flesh.  Stimulated  by  the  rehgious  inter- 
est awakened  in  the  crusading  age,  the  Cathari  grew 
rapidly,  becoming  the  most  powerful  party  in  many 
sections  of  southern  France,  where  they  were  known 
as  "  Albigenses"  from  the  city  of  Albi.  In  Italy,  too, 
they  were  strongly  represented,  controlling  the  gov- 
ernment of  Assisi,  for  instance,  for  a  time  when  Fran- 
cis was  a  young  man.  To  the  Roman  church  they 
were  an  immense  peril;  and  after  more  than  half  a 
century  of  sporadic,  and  mostly  vain,  attempts  to 
win  them  back  by  missionary  efifort,  they  were 
crushed  in  France  by  mihtary  force,  through  the 
combined  efforts  of  the  church  and  the  French  mon- 
archy (1209-29).  Their  political  collapse,  in  1229, 
was  followed  by  the  more  complete  establishment  of 
the  Inquisition  for  their  uprooting;  and,  since  they 
had  made  much  use  of  the  Bible  in  defense  of  their 


l62     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

position,  by  the  prohibition  of  the  reading  of  trans- 
lations of  the  Scriptures.^ 

The  Catharite  movement  was  fundamentally  hos- 
tile to  Christianity.  Not  so  the  Waldensian.  It  was 
simply  an  earnest  attempt  to  live  the  Christlike  life, 
and  intentionally  within  the  church.  Valdez,  or 
Waldo,  was  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Lyons  in  France. 
Awakened  religiously,  he  was  moved,  in  ii73,by  the 
legends  of  the  saints,  and  especially  by  Christ's  direc- 
tions to  the  rich  young  man,^  to  give  his  property  to  the 
poor.  He  now  obtained  translations  of  the  gospels 
and  some  other  books  of  the  Bible,  gathered  a  few 
disciples  about  him,  and  felt  himself  called  with  his 
friends  to  carry  out  Christ's  injunctions  to  the  apos- 
tles,3  by  going  throughout  the  country,  without 
money  or  shoes,  proclaiming  Christ's  message  and 
dependent  on  the  gifts  of  those  to  whom  he  preached. 
He  had  no  thought  of  hostility  toward  the  ecclesias- 
tical authorities.  Beginning  this  mission  in  1178, 
he  sought  the  approval  of  Pope  Alexander  III,  and 
of  the  third  Lateran  Council  at  Rome  in  11 79.  Here 
he  was  not  judged  a  heretic,  but  he  and  his  followers 
were  thought  ignorant  laymen  and  ordered  not  to 
preach  without  ecclesiastical  permission.  To  Valdez 
not  to  preach  was  to  disobey  Christ.  He  persisted; 
and,  in  1184,  the  Waldenses  were  excommunicated 

»  For  scriptural  excuse  for  this  prohibition,  see  II  Peter  3:  i6. 

a  Mark  10:21. 

3  Matt.  10:5-14;  Luke  9:1-6. 


FRANCIS  163 

by  Pope  Lucius  III.  A  little  more  than  twenty  years 
later,  Pope  Innocent  III,  seeing  the  mistake  of  his 
predecessor,  tried  to  draw  the  Waldenses  as  a  preach- 
ing association  into  the  Roman  church;  but  it  was 
too  late.  They  grew  and  spread,  being  represented 
not  merely  in  eastern  France  but  in  northern  Italy, 
and  ultimately  in  Germany.  As  they  developed  they 
came  more  and  more  to  feel  that  no  teaching  but  that 
of  Christ  was  binding,  and  to  reject  all  in  the  Roman 
church  for  which  they  could  not  find  clear  scriptural 
warrant.  Yet  they  were  slow  in  forming  a  church 
for  themselves.  They  consisted  of  an  inner  circle,  the 
society  proper,  bound  by  monastic  vows,  and  wor- 
shiping by  simpler  services,  and  an  outer  body  of 
"friends"  who  still  remained  in  the  Roman  commun- 
ion, but  from  whom  the  society  was  recruited  and  by 
whom  it  was  supported.  Pressed  by  persecution,  the 
Waldenses  were  driven  into  the  high  valleys  of  the 
Alps  west  of  Turin,  where  they  maintained  their  inde- 
pendence. They  became  fully  Protestant  at  the 
Reformation,  still  exist  in  vigor,  and  now  that  reli- 
gious freedom  has  been  established  in  Italy,  carry  on 
Christian  work  in  its  chief  cities. 

All  these  movements,  notably  that  of  the  Waldenses, 
were  not  merely  ascetic,  but  semi-monastic  in  form. 
But  their  monasticism  differed  from  the  older  types  in 
two  important  particulars.  Earlier  monasticism  em- 
phasized separation  from  the  world.  Its  aim  was  to 
seek  personal  salvation.    Though  it  had  engaged  in 


i64     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

much  missionary  work  when  established,  it  was  es- 
sentially aristocratic,  even  if  its  recruits  were  from 
all  classes  of  society.  The  new  movements,  especi- 
ally that  of  the  Waldenses,  had  for  their  aim  work 
for  others.  They  affiliated  with  the  common  people. 
They  were  fundamentally  democratic.  They  intro- 
duced a  new  purpose  into  monastic  life.  What  Valdez 
attempted,  and  that  for  which  he  was  most  un- 
wisely driven  from  the  Roman  church,  was  taken  up 
into  the  service  of  that  church  by  a  Spaniard,  Domi- 
nick  (1170-1221),  the  founder  of  the  "Order  of  the 
Preachers,"  or  Dominicans,  and  especially  by  Fran- 
cis of  Assisi,  the  man  who  in  the  judgment  of  his  age 
lived  nearest  of  all  men  like  Christ,  and  who  was 
therefore  the  most  typical  mediaeval  saint.  Francis, 
or  as  he  was  baptized,  John,  Bernardone,  was  born  in 
1 182,  in  Assisi,  a  little  Umbrian  city,  about  eighty- 
five  miles  north  of  Rome.  His  father,  Peter,  was  a 
wealthy  cloth  merchant.  From  boyhood,  Francis 
showed  himself  a  leader,  but  at  first  with  no  intima- 
tion of  interest  in  religion,  for  it  was  as  a  leader  of  the 
young  men  of  the  city,  associated  in  a  kind  of  club 
for  riotous  amusement,  that  he  first  won  distinction. 
Of  learning  he  had  comparatively  little.  Assisi  was 
distracted  by  quarrels  between  the  aristocrats  and 
common  people,  and  the  former,  being  worsted  in 
1202,  called  in  the  aid  of  the  citizens  of  Perugia,  only 
thirteen  miles  distant,  but,  such  was  the  distracted 
condition  of  Italian  politics,  a  bitter  rival  of  Francis' 


FRANCIS  165 

native  town.  In  the  battle  that  followed  Francis 
fought  on  the  popular  side,  and,  the  Assisan  forces 
being  beaten,  he  was  taken  a  prisoner  of  war  to 
Perugia,  where  he  remained  a  year.  Even  now  he 
was  distinguished  for  his  cheerfulness  and  courage. 
His  return  from  this  imprisonment  was  followed  by 
a  severe  illness.  Recovered,  he  was  more  earnest  in 
purpose  than  he  had  thus  far  been,  but  not  yet  deter- 
mined to  devote  himself  to  the  Christian  life,  for  he 
now  decided  to  seek  a  soldier's  career  in  southern 
Italy.  He  started  on  this  quest,  but  only  to  abandon 
it  when  a  few  miles  from  Assisi  and  to  return  to  his 
home.  His  conversion  was  beginning,  however. 
With  Francis  it  was  no  sudden  change,  but  a  gradual 
process.  His  sympathy  went  out  to  the  poor.  He 
gave  largely  of  his  means  to  their  relief;  but  even 
more  largely  of  his  interest  and  personal  help.  He 
cared  for  the  sick,  even  for  the  lepers  whom  most 
shunned.  At  Rome,  on  a  pilgrimage,  he  borrowed  a 
beggar's  clothes,  and  supplicated  his  food  that  he 
might  understand  the  lot  of  the  unfortunate.  He 
meditated  and  prayed  much  in  solitude.  He  believed 
that  he  heard  a  divine  call  to  "restore  the  fallen 
church  of  God."  Taking  the  vision  literally,  he  sold 
his  horse  and  some  pieces  of  cloth,  and  offered  the 
sum  thus  obtained  to  rebuild  the  chapel  of  St.  Da- 
mian.  Francis'  father  had  long  been  disgusted  by 
what  he  deemed  his  son's  unbusiness-like  ways  and 
had  used  even  force  to  win  him  back.     This  act 


1 66    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

seemed  to  him  the  climax.  In  the  quarrel  that  fol- 
lowed, Francis  was  summoned  before  the  bishop,  and 
now  formally  renounced  to  his  father  not  merely  the 
money,  but  his  clothing,  declaring  that  henceforth  he 
had  no  father  but  the  Father  in  heaven.  Men  derided 
him  as  insane,  but  he  persisted  with  unabated  courage. 
For  about  two  years  after  this  event  Francis  la- 
bored with  his  own  hands  and  by  begging  aid  for  the 
restoration  not  only  of  St.  D  ami  an  but  of  the  Por- 
tiuncula  and  other  chapels  near  Assisi.  In  1 209,  how- 
ever, a  larger  vision  of  his  work  came  to  him.  He 
heard  read  from  the  gospels  that  command  of  Christ 
to  the  apostles  to  preach  the  good  news  of  the  King- 
dom which  had  once  made  such  an  impression  on 
Valdez.  At  once  he  began  to  put  it  into  practice. 
His  message  was  to  living  men  in  the  name  of  Christ. 
Soon  he  gathered  a  few  associates,  kindled  by  his 
enthusiasm.  In  a  few  months  they  grew  to  eleven 
in  number.  In  their  "  apostolic  poverty  "  they  should 
go,  clad  only  in  a  long  robe  of  undyed  wool  bound  at 
the  waist  by  a  bit  of  rope.  Two  by  two  the  new 
preachers  went,  with  singing  and  much  expression  of 
happiness,  not  merely  as  those  who  were  serving 
Christ,  but  who  found  all  God's  creatures  their 
friends.  This  appreciation  of  nature  as  God's  work, 
and  therefore  to  be  loved  and  desired,  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  of  Francis'  characteristics,  fanciful 
as  was  often  the  form  in  which  it  expressed  itself. 
In  "brother  sun"  and  "brother  fire"  he  saw,  no  less 


FRANCIS  167 

than  in  his  fellow-men,  God's  servants  and  therefore 
his  brethren.  Among  men,  Francis  felt  that  his 
work  was  primarily  for  the  neediest  and  lowliest. 
His  own  association  was  of  "humble"  brethren,  a 
term  that  of  itself  implied  affiliation  with  the  lower 
rather  than  the  higher  social  classes.  It  was  to  the 
people  little  in  the  world's  regard,  the  poor,  the  sick, 
the  lowly,  that  he  was  to  go  in  "  apostolic  poverty," 
with  the  message  of  repentance. 

For  this  little  brotherhood  Francis  prepared  in 
1209  a  simple  "Rule,"  not  now  existent;  but  con- 
taining little  more  than  Christ's  injunction  to  take  up 
the  cross,  his  advice  to  the  rich  young  man,  and  his 
directions  to  the  apostles;  and,  also,  brief  regula- 
tions regarding  fasting,  humble  carriage  toward  all 
men  in  imitation  of  Christ's  humiliation,  and  speak- 
ing and  living  as  good  Catholics,  for  Francis  was 
anxious  to  serve  the  church  and  to  recognize  the 
authority  of  its  officers.  With  this  "Rule"  he  and 
his  companions  went  to  Pope  Innocent  III.  It  was 
almost  exactly  the  same  proposal  with  which  Valdez 
had  vainly  approached  Pope  Alexander  III  in  1179; 
but  times  had  changed.  Innocent  III  saw  the  mis- 
take which  his  predecessor  had  made;  he  had  just 
been  engaged  in  trying  to  persuade  some  of  the 
Waldenses  to  return  to  the  Roman  church.  Under 
such  circumstances  it  is  not  surprising  that  Francis' 
fate  was  very  unlike  that  of  Valdez,  and  that  Inno- 
cent  III,  most  wisely,  gave   his    approval   to   the 


1 68     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

work.  It  was  still  a  wholly  simple  association  of 
those  who  would  live  and  preach  as  Jesus  taught; 
but  it  was  now  approved  by  the  pope  (1210)  and  by 
papal  injunction  had  in  Francis  a  responsible  head 
with  whom  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  could  deal. 
The  first  step  toward  the  Franciscan  order  had  been 
taken. 

In  little  huts  grouped  round  the  church  known  as 
Portiuncula  near  Assisi  the  brethren  had  their  first 
headquarters.  Here  at  each  Pentecost  they  gathered 
to  relate  their  experiences  and  strengthen  themselves 
for  their  work.  From  this  meeting  the  annual  "  gen- 
eral chapter"  was  soon  to  grow.  But  Portiuncula 
was  simply  their  center.  Thence  they  went  forth  to 
preach,  to  aid  the  poor,  nurse  the  sick,  and  care  for 
the  neglected.  They  were  to  help  the  peasants  in 
the  fields,  to  work  in  return  for  food  and  lodging; 
but  to  take  no  money,  and  to  beg  only  in  illness  or 
incapacity.  It  was  a  working,  helpful  association, 
not  a  mendicant  order  that  Francis  planned. 

Francis'  followers  rapidly  multiplied,  and  were 
not  confined  to  his  own  sex.  Impressed  by  a  fiery 
sermon  on  the  duty  of  forsaking  all  to  follow  Christ, 
a  girl  of  eighteen,  of  noble  lineage,  Clara  Scifi,  dedi- 
cated herself  to  a  similar  work;  and  her  vows  were 
received  by  Francis  himself  in  the  Portiuncula 
church  on  March  18,  12 12.  With  her  the  nuns  of 
the  Franciscan  order,  or  Clarissines,  had  their  begin- 
ning.    Francis    himself    preached    widely    through 


FRANCIS  169 

Italy,  and  soon  his  disciples  were  carrying  his  work 
not  merely  throughout  the  peninsula,  but  to  Spain, 
France,  Hungary,  and  Germany.  Such  a  man 
could  not  be  possessed  of  a  burning  desire  to  bring 
disciples  to  his  Master  without  his  heart  going  forth 
in  love  to  those  who  rejected  the  lordship  of  Christ. 
Francis  would  lead  in  foreign  missions.  The  cru- 
sading expedition  of  12 19  to  Egypt  gave  him  his 
opportunity.  With  eleven  companions  he  accom- 
panied the  army,  and  even  preached  before  the 
sultan,  by  whom  his  courage  and  sincerity  were 
respected.  The  converts  from  Mohammedanism 
that  he  desired  were  not  made — he  had  too  little 
preparation  for  the  work — but  his  own  consecration 
of  spirit  was  abundantly  revealed.  From  Egypt  he 
visited  the  holy  places  in  Palestine,  and  it  was  only 
after  an  absence  of  more  than  a  year  (June,  12 19,  to 
July,  1220)  that  he  again  saw  Italy. 

During  this  absence  serious  changes  took  place 
in  the  association,  part  of  which  were  inevitable.  It 
was  growing  rapidly.  Its  very  popularity  was  a 
peril  to  its  original  ideals.  The  simple  enthusiasm 
for  the  life  of  "apostolic  poverty,"  and  strict  obe- 
dience to  Christ,  the  motive  spring  of  which  was  love, 
was  hard  to  maintain  as  numbers  increased.  The 
need  of  organization,  rules,  and  careful  supervision 
grew  in  proportion  to  the  enlargement  of  the  body. 
It  is  always  thus.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  few  can 
be  carried  to  the  many  only  in  gready  weakened 


I70     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

form,  and  with  the  many,  organization  must  attempt 
to  make  good  the  defect.  Then,  too,  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal authorities,  notably  Cardinal  Ugolino,  the  later 
Pope  Gregory  IX,  who  soon  became  by  appointment 
of  Pope  Honorius  III  the  "protector"  of  the  asso- 
ciation, saw  the  possibilities  of  the  movement  as  an 
aid  to  the  papacy  and  the  advancement  of  the 
interests  of  the  Roman  church,  where  its  authority 
had  been  undermined  by  Cathari,  Waldenses,  and 
other  "heretics."  A  society  of  three  thousand  mem- 
bers, as  that  of  Francis  had  grown  to  be,  was  very 
different  from  a  little  company  of  eleven  Hke-minded 
enthusiasts. 

Its  development  into  a  full  monastic  order  went 
rapidly  forward.  A  bull  of  Pope  Honorius  III,  of 
September,  1220,  regulated  entrance,  required  per- 
petual observance  of  vows,  and  placed  the  monks 
under  the  strict  command  of  their  superiors.  A  new 
"Rule,"  in  which  Francis  had  some  share,  but  on 
which  others  labored,  was  issued  in  1221 ;  only  to  be 
replaced  by  another,  prepared  chiefly  by  Cardinal 
Ugolino,  two  years  later.  This  revised  rule  made 
begging  a  fundamental  characteristic  of  the  order. 
In  it  the  eager  reference  to  Christ's  commands, 
which  marked  the  earlier  "  Rule,"  became  a  series  of 
relatively  minute  and  legalistic  regulations,  charac- 
teristic of  the  spirit  of  monasticism  in  general.  It 
was  more  ecclesiastical,  less  free  and  fresh-spirited. 
Among  the  brethren  themselves,  moreover,  two  tend- 


FRANCIS  171 

encies  appeared,  the  one  to  preserve,  and  if  any- 
thing to  increase,  the  ascetic  inclinations  rather  than 
the  loving  spirit  of  the  founder;  the  other  toward  a 
laxer  interpretation  of  his  conception  of  Christlike 
poverty,  and  an  emphasis  on  organization,  mechan- 
ical discipline,  and  the  development  of  a  great  monas- 
tic body.  Francis  himself  was  no  organizer.  He 
was  a  preacher,  a  lover  of  his  fellow-men,  and  an 
enthusiastic  disciple  of  his  Master.  Elias  of  Cortona, 
his  friend  and  associate,  possessed  the  administrative 
talents  which  he  lacked,  without  his  enthusiastic 
spiritual  insight,  and  with  decided  inclination  to  the 
more  worldly  of  the  two  tendencies  within  the  order 
of  which  mention  has  been  made.  The  reins  had 
fallen  by  1220  from  Francis'  hands,  and  from  1223 
Elias  was  the  controlling  spirit.  The  tendencies  were 
at  work  which  were  to  lead  to  long-persisting  quar- 
rels between  the  stricter  and  looser  elements  in  the 
order. 

Francis'  last  years  were,  therefore,  filled  with  grief 
and  apprehension.  He  saw  the  ideal  of  his  associa- 
tion changing.  He  feared  the  spread  of  worldliness 
in  the  order.  He  dreaded  the  growth  of  devotion  to 
learning,  lest  the  service  of  the  poor  and  lowly  should 
be  supplanted  by  it.  He  spoke  forth  his  anxiety  in 
bitterness  of  spirit.  Broken  in  health  from  the  time 
of  his  return  from  his  mission  to  the  East,  he  with- 
drew more  and  more  from  the  activities  of  life.  He 
sang  his  praises  to  God,  he  prayed,  he  fasted,  he  was 


172     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

much  alone  in  ecstatic  meditation.  In  one  of  these 
long  vigils,  in  1224,  there  appeared  on  his  body  the 
marks  of  the  Savior's  wounds,  constituting  in  his  own 
thought  an  honor  similar  to  that  which  he  believed 
the  apostle  Paul  to  have  received.'  The  fact  of  these 
"  stigmata"  is  assured;  the  question  of  how  they  came 
to  be  is  more  difficult.  The  best  solution  seems  to  lie 
in  that  but  partially  understood  influence  of  the  mind, 
dwelling  intensely  on  a  desired  experience,  on  a  body 
enfeebled  by  extreme  asceticism.  As  his  end  grew 
near,  Francis  had  himself  carried  to  the  vicinity  of  his 
beloved  church  of  Portiuncula,  and  in  it  he  died  in 
full  humility  and  triumphant  peace  on  October  3, 
1226.  He  was  of  his  age  and  race  in  many  of  the 
circumstances  of  his  career ;  but  he  belongs  to  all  the 
Christian  centuries  in  spirit,  for  he  tried  in  utmost 
love  and  humility  to  live  the  very  life  of  Christian 
discipleship  as  he  believed  Christ  taught  his  first 
followers  to  live  it. 

Much  as  the  order  which  he  founded  departed 
from  his  ideal,  it  was  a  great  power  for  good  in  the 
Roman  church  for  more  than  a  century  after  his 
death,  and  remains  in  usefulness  to  this  day.  It 
spread  with  marvelous  rapidity  throughout  Europe, 
welcomed  by  the  common  people,  to  whom  its  friars 
came  as  preachers  and  as  helpers.     It  did  much  for 

I  Gal.  6:17,  where  the  reference  is  probably  not  to  the  wounds 
Christ  received  on  the  cross,  but  to  disfigurements  resulting  from 
stoning  at  Lystra,  Acts  14: 19. 


FRANCIS  173 

the  unchurched  and  neglected  in  the  cities.  It  pre- 
sented a  democratic  conception  of  monasticism,  in 
contrast  to  the  essential  aristocracy  of  the  older 
orders.  To  a  large  degree  it  was  true  to  the  prin- 
ciple that  in  work  for  others  rather  than  for  oneself 
lies  the  highest  value  of  the  Christian  life.  For  the 
Roman  church  and  the  papacy  the  Franciscan  order 
was  of  utmost  usefulness.  It  and  the  Dominican 
body  largely  won  back  the  popular  support  which 
had  seemed  to  be  slipping  away  from  the  church. 
They  presented  a  type  of  piety  that  appealed  to  the 
best  men  of  the  age.  They  took  up  into  the  service 
of  the  church  that  which  had  most  attracted  men 
in  the  Cathari  and  Waldenses,  and  by  so  doing 
overcame  the  opposition  which  had  given  to  those 
"heretical"  movements  their  chief  support.  They 
profoundly  deepened  and  quickened  the  popular 
religious  life. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  How  did  men  of  the  twelfth  century  conceive  of  imitat- 
ing Christ?     What  did  they  mean  by  "apostoHc  poverty"  ? 

2.  What  was  the  result  of  this  valuation  of  "apostolic 
poverty  "on  men's  attitude  toward  the  rich  prelates  and  the 
wealthy  monasteries?    Was  the  period  one  of  many  sects? 

3.  Who  were  the  Cathari?  Their  beliefs?  How  were 
they  suppressed  ? 

4.  Who  was  Valdez,  when  did  he  live,  how  was  he  con- 
verted, and  what  did  he  attempt?  How  was  he  treated  by 
the  Roman  church  ?     Who  were  and  are  the  Waldenses  ? 

5.  What  new  methods  and  spirit  did  these  protesters  repre- 


174     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

sent,  and   by  whom  were  these  principles  taken  up  into  the 
service  of  the  Roman  church  ? 

6.  Outline  the  early  life  of  Francis.  His  birthplace, 
parentage,  youth,  captivity? 

7.  Describe  the  nature  of  Francis'  conversion.  What 
spirit  animated  him  ?     What  text  impressed  him  ? 

8.  How  did  Francis  conceive  of  the  Christian  life  ?  What 
were  the  original  purposes  of  his  brotherhood?  Its  earliest 
"Rule"? 

9.  Give  some  account  of  Clara  Scifi,  and  of  the  founding 
of  the  Clarissines. 

10.  How  did  Francis  attempt  to  engage  in  foreign  mis- 
sions ? 

11.  How  were  the  original  ideals  of  Francis'  association 
transformed  ?  Was  this  change  unavoidable  ?  The  "Rules" 
of  1221  and  1223  ?     Francis'  feeling  toward  these  changes? 

12.  Francis'  last  years?  Their  occupations ?  The  "stig- 
mata"?    His  death?     His  character ? 

13.  The  influence  of  the  Franciscan  order? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

Paul  Sabatier,  Life  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  (English  trans- 
lation) (New  York,  1894). 

J.  W.  Knox-Little,  Saint  Francis  of  Assisi,  His  Times,  Life, 
and  Work  (London,  1897). 

Schaff  (continued  by  David  S.  Schaff),  History  of  the  Christian 
Church  (New  York,  1907),  V,  Pt.  I,  379-533. 


THOMAS  AQUINAS 


THOMAS  AQUINAS 

The  consideration  already  given  to  Godfrey  and 
to  Francis  has  shown  something  of  two  very  unhke 
aspects  of  the  rehgious  life  of  the  crusading  period. 
With  Aquinas  we  turn  to  a  third  feature  of  the  age, 
its  theological  learning.  The  intellectual  efforts  of 
the  Middle  Ages  have  often  been  unduly  belittled, 
and  the  title  given  to  them — that  of  ''Scholasticism" 
— interpreted  so  as  to  imply  an  undeserved  contempt. 
The  aim  of  the  schoolmen  was  not,  indeed,  a  free 
inquiry  as  to  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  Christian 
religion,  as  if  that  were  a  matter  open  to  debate. 
The  chief  doctrines  of  the  faith  were  regarded  as 
fixed ;  and  the  object  of  discussion  was  to  show  their 
reasonableness  and  to  explain  their  philosophic  im- 
plications. But,  under  this  apparent  rigidity,  an 
immense  amount  of  freedom  of  discussion  was  actu- 
ally enjoyed,  objections  of  the  most  weighty  character 
were  stated  and  answered,  and  the  whole  field  of 
systematic  theology  was  carefully  investigated.  It 
was  a  noble  attempt  to  explain  and  interpret  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith. 

The  intellectual  stagnation  consequent  upon  the 
collapse  of  the  ancient  Roman  world  through  the 
Germanic  invasions  was  nowhere  more  evident  or 
177 


178     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

more  slowly  overcome  than  in  the  domain  of  theologi- 
cal speculation.  While  many  doctrines  were  modi- 
fied in  the  early  Middle  Ages  by  what  may  be  called 
the  general  spirit  of  the  time,  conscious  discussion  of 
theology,  as  far  as  it  existed,  was  essentially  a  repro- 
duction of  the  positions  of  the  great  teachers  of  the 
declining  Roman  Empire.  But  with  the  gradual 
increase  of  enlightenment,  this  branch  of  intel- 
lectual activity  was  stimulated  also,  and  in  the  period 
of  the  First  Crusade  there  appeared  in  Anselm 
(1033-1109),  the  ItaHan-born  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, a  theologian  who  gave  a  new  and  influential 
interpretation  to  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  who 
presented  an  impressive  demonstration  of  the  exist- 
ence of  God,  ai-d  deserved  to  be  called  "the  father 
of  the  schoolmen. " 

In  Abelard  (1079-1142),  who  taught  in  Paris, 
scholasticism  was  represented  by  a  great  critic,  whose 
free  handling  of  the  current  theology  shocked  many 
of  his  contemporaries,  but  undoubtedly  stimulated 
inquiry  by  its  defense  of  the  rights  of  intellectual 
investigation  as  against  dependence  on  traditional 
authority.  This  tendency  found  a  vigorous  oppo- 
nent in  Bernhard  of  Clairvaux  (1090-1153),  the 
greatest  preacher  of  his  age,  and  one  of  the  noblest 
characters  of  church  history,  whose  own  deep  mysti- 
cal piety  was  nourished  and  developed  by  that  of 
Augustine,  but  who  had  a  much  clearer  conception 
of  justification  by  faith  alone  than  the  great  African 


THOMAS  AQUINAS  179 

theologian,  so  that  Luther  was  to  be  profoundly  in- 
fluenced by  him.  It  is  easy  to  see,  however,  that  the 
desire  to  know  truth  scientifically,  and  to  feel  it 
religiously — the  intellectual  and  the  mystical  tend- 
encies— are  not  necessarily  mutually  exclusive.  They 
were  united  in  Bernhard's  friend  Hugo  of  St.  Victor 
(1097?-!  141),  and  even  more  in  Peter  Lombard 
(?-ii6o?),  both  of  whom  taught  in  Paris.  The 
latter,  a  disciple  both  of  Abelard  and  Hugo,  combined 
the  new  and  the  old  methods  in  his  Four  Books  of 
Sentences  so  skilfully  that  his  work  held  its  place 
as  the  main  textbook  of  theological  instruction  till 
the  Reformation.  A  collection  of  authoritative  ex- 
tracts ("sentences")  from  the  Bible  and  the  Fathers 
was  gathered,  in  the  older  fashion,  but  interpreted 
and  explained  by  the  new  philosophic  discussion. 
Thanks  to  the  work  of  these  men,  the  ''new  theology," 
as  it  was  called,  won  its  way,  in  spite  of  opposition; 
and  by  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  the  scho- 
lastic, systematic  treatment  of  Christian  truth,  as 
contrasted  with  the  traditional  acceptance  of  ancient 
statements,  was  fully  developed.  A  great  period  of 
theological  discussion  was  well  begun. 

Some  of  these  teachers  had  been  connected  with 
monastic  or  cathedral  schools,  others  had  been 
independent;  but  in  many  of  the  cities  of  Europe 
scholars  were  gathering  about  them  and  others  like 
them.  Various  studies  were  preferred  in  different 
cities.     Thus  Paris  and  soon  Oxford  were  centers 


i8o     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  theology,  Bologna  of  law,  and  Salerno  of  medi- 
cine. Shordy  before  1200  a  great  change,  however, 
began.  In  the  Middle  Ages  each  trade  in  a  town 
was  incorporated,  and  had  its  own  laws  and  govern- 
ment. The  whole  body  of  teachers  and  scholars 
in  a  particular  community  were  now  similarly  asso- 
ciated, and  thus  the  "University"  came  into  being. 
Of  these  probably  the  earliest  except  Bologna  and 
Salerno,  and  certainly  the  most  famous  and  influ- 
ential, was  the  University  of  Paris,  the  most  cele- 
brated seat  of  theology  in  the  later  Middle  Ages.  In 
this  institution,  which  became  the  model  of  many 
similar  foundations,  studies  were  begun  under  the 
faculty  of  arts,  and  continued  under  one  of  the  three 
higher  faculties  of  theology,  law,  or  medicine.  The 
universal  use  of  Latin  made  it  possible  for  teachers 
and  students  from  all  nations  to  share  in  the  work, 
and  soon  the  attendance  was  counted,  in  the  larger 
institutions,  by  thousands. 

Contemporary  with  this  change  in  instruction 
through  the  development  of  universities,  learning, 
and  especially  the  discussion  of  theology,  were  given 
a  great  impetus  by  the  revived  knowledge  of  the 
Greek  philosopher,  Aristotle.  Studied  among  the 
Mohammedans  and  Jews  of  Spain,  Aristotle's  writ- 
ings began  to  be  influential  by  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century  among  Christian  scholars,  at  first 
through  Arabian  and  Jewish  commentaries,  and 
then  by  direct  translation.     Though  the  influence 


THOMAS  AQUINAS  i8i 

of  Aristotle  was  looked  upon  with  suspicion  as  too 
rationalistic  by  orthodox  churchmen,  who  represented 
the  traditional  neo-Platonism  of  Augustine,  his  philo- 
sophic standpoint  so  approved  itself  that,  by  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  it  was  dominant 
in  theologic  investigation.  The  result  was  the  golden 
age  of  scholasticism,  illustrated  in  the  work  of  a 
series  of  brilliant  and  profound  thinkers,  of  whom 
the  most  conspicuous  were  Alexander  of  Hales  (?- 
1245),  an  Enghsh-born  teacher  of  Paris;  Albertus 
Magnus  (i  193-1280),  a  German,  who  labored  prin- 
cipally in  Cologne;  Thomas  Aquinas,  an  Italian  of 
whom  more  will  be  said;  Bonaventura  (1221-74), 
likewise  an  Italian,  who  worked  much  in  Paris;  and 
Duns  Scotus  (1265  ?-i3o8),  of  English  or  possibly 
Scottish  origin,  who  taught  in  Oxford  and  Paris.  All 
the  scholars  just  named  were  members  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan or  Dominican  orders,  then  representing  the 
warmest  type  of  religious  life.  All  were  men  of 
character.  All  regarded  the  Bible  as  the  final  author- 
ity. While  they  differed  much  among  themselves,  all 
pursued  essentially  similar  methods  of  investigation 
and  presentation.  Of  them  all,  Aquinas  was  the 
first  in  clearness  of  presentation,  and  in  the  com- 
pleteness with  which  he  made  the  Aristotelian  phi- 
losophy subservient  to  the  development  of  a  great 
theological  explanation  of  Christian  truth.  His  aim 
was  to  show  the  reasonableness,  naturalness,  and 
verity  of  the  Christian  system,  as  then  understood, 


i82     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

when  explained  in  the  light  of  the  science  of  the  age; 
and  in  its  accomplishment  he  showed  himself  not 
merely  the  greatest  theologian  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but 
the  classic  exponent  of  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  to 
the  present  day. 

Thomas  was  born  in  the  castle  of  Rocca  Sicca, 
near  Aquino,  from  which  place  his  father,  Landulf, 
took  the  title  of  count,  in  1225  or,  less  probably,  1227. 
Though  thus  Italian  in  origin,  he  was  related  to  some 
of  the  most  eminent  families  of  Europe.  His  father 
was  a  connection  of  the  great  German  imperial  house 
of  Hohenstaufen,  his  mother  traced  her  ancestry  to 
the  Norman  Tancred  who  distinguished  himself  as  a 
leader  of  the  forces  of  southern  Italy  in  the  First 
Crusade.  The  family  was  in  every  way  one  of  dis- 
tinction, and  prominent  in  the  political  conflicts  be- 
tween the  popes  and  emperors.  Monte  Cassino, 
the  mother  monastery  of  the  Benedictine  order,^  is 
only  eight  miles  from  Aquino,  and  thither  Thomas 
was  sent  in  childhood  for  education.  Thence  he 
went,  while  still  in  boyhood,  to  Naples;  and  there  fell 
under  the  influence  of  the  Dominicans,  then  in  the 
height  of  their  early  fame.  Their  zeal,  their  scholar- 
ship, and  their  self-denial  all  attracted  him,  and  the 
eighteen-year-old  boy  determined  to  become  a  monk 
of  the  order.  His  family,  who  hoped  for  him  a 
brilliant  secular  career,  bitterly  opposed  this.  He 
was  imprisoned,  worldly  inducements,  even  tempta- 

»  Ante^  p.  108. 


THOMAS  AQUINAS  183 

tions,  were  employed  to  turn  his  purpose;  but  he 
persisted,  and,  in  1244,  he  was  admitted  a  Domini- 
can. His  superior  in  the  order  perceived  his  scholas- 
tic promise,  and  soon  sent  him  (1245)  to  Cologne  to 
have  the  benefit  of  instruction  by  Albertus  Magnus.' 
Here  his  large  frame  and  silent  manner  made  him 
rather  the  butt  of  the  lighter-minded  of  his  fellow- 
students,  and  he  was  nicknamed  "the  dumb  ox;" 
but  his  teachers  saw  what  was  in  him,  and  he  now 
went  with  Albertus  Magnus  for  further  study  to  Paris. 
By  1248  he  was  teaching  with  great  success  as  second 
in  the  school  at  Cologne,  and  four  years  later  estab- 
lished himself  in  Paris,  where  his  lectures  were 
thronged,  though  the  university  refused  to  give  him 
full  standing  among  its  teachers  of  theology  till  1257, 
because  of  a  jealous  fear  lest  the  mendicant  orders 
should  thus  obtain  a  footing  in  its  faculty. 

Such  conspicuity  in  learning  was  accompanied, 
however,  by  great  modesty.  Splendid  ecclesiastical 
posts  were  offered  him,  but  Aquinas  refused  them 
all.  He  never  forgot  that  he  was  a  member  of  a 
preaching  order,  and  his  sermons  were  marked  by 
great  simplicity,  directness,  and  effectiveness.  His 
judgment  was  so  sound  and  disinterested,  even  in 
worldly  matters,  that  his  advice  was  sought  by  nobles 
and  princes.  In  all  his  work  he  sought  divine 
guidance  by  prayer,  and  his  piety  was  as  unaffected 
as  it  was  sincere.     Summoned  to  Italy  by  Urban  IV 

»  Ante,  p.  181. 


i84    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

in  1261,  he  taught  in  Rome,  Pisa,  Bologna,  and  again 
in  Paris,  till  in  1 272  he  became  professor  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Naples.  Gregory  X  invited  him  to  the  Council 
of  Lyons,  but  the  journey  thither  was  never  completed. 
He  died  on  March  7,  1274,  at  the  age  probably  of 
forty-nine,  in  the  monastery  of  Fossa  Nuova,  only 
a  few  miles  from  the  place  of  his  birth.  He  was  a 
noble  example  of  the  Christian  scholar,  humble, 
prayerful,  teachable,  yet  profoundly  learned,  and 
universally  recognized  as  of  transcendent  abilities  as 
a  teacher  and  an  interpreter  of  Christian  theology. 
Throughout  these  brief  years  of  study,  teaching, 
preaching,  and  travel,  which  most  men  would  have 
found  exhaustingly  filled  by  these  labors,  Thomas 
was  constantly  busy  with  his  pen ;  and  the  fecundity 
displayed  is  amazing,  his  works  filling  no  less  than 
twenty-eight  good-sized  volumes.^  Nor  is  the  qual- 
ity of  his  discussions  less  remarkable.  He  is  the 
profoundest  of  the  mediaeval  scholars,  and  at  the 
same  time  one  of  the  most  lucid  in  expression.  In 
ethics  Thomas  is  ranked  by  good  judges  as  second 
only  to  Augustine  in  his  contribution  to  the  develop- 
ment of  a  scientific  treatment  of  Christian  morals. 
In  government,  even  in  so  remote  a  subject  as  trade, 
his  views  command  great  historic  interest.  But 
speculative  theology  was  to  him  the  crown  of  all 
studies,  and  his  ripest  work  is  therefore  the  Summa 

I  E.  g.,  in  the  Venice  edition  of  1787.     The  new  Roman  edi- 
tion, begun  by  Leo  XIII,  will  have  twenty-five  volumes. 


THOMAS  AQUINAS  185 

theologica,  his  general  view  of  the  whole  body  of 
Christian  belief. 

In  its  form  the  Summa  is  exceedingly  mechanical, 
some  518  questions  being  treated  in  2,652  articles, 
the  discussion  of  each  following  the  same  order. 
The  proposition  presented  is  clearly  defined  and  de- 
fended by  authority  and  argument,  the  objections 
equally  fairly  stated  and  carefully  answered.  This 
form,  whatever  its  defects,  had  the  merits  of  thorough- 
ness and  full  consideration  of  opposing  views.  In 
his  citation  of  authorities  it  is  interesting  to  observe 
that  Thomas  regarded  nothing  but  the  Bible,  and 
that  literally  understood,  as  conclusive.  All  the 
more  striking,  therefore,  as  showing  how  fully  he 
was  under  the  influence  of  the  spirit  of  his  age,  it 
is  that  he  is  able  to  defend  not  only  the  whole 
of  the  traditional  creed,  but  all  important  parts 
of  contemporary  churchly  practice  and  of  papal 
claim. 

Our  space  will  permit  but  a  hasty  glance  at  the 
contents  of  this  great  outline  of  theology.  The  chief 
end  of  all  investigation  of  religious  truth,  Thomas 
held,  is  to  give  knowledge  of  God,  and  of  man's  origin 
and  destiny.  Much  can  be  known  by  the  use  of  reason 
— natural  theology — but  full  knowledge  must  have 
a  higher  source.  It  comes  only  by  revelation  from 
God  himself.  This  revelation  reason  alone  cannot 
reach.  It  cannot  prove  or  disprove  it.  But  revela- 
tion contains  nothing  contrary  to  reason,  and  reason 


i86     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

can  show  the  weakness  of  the  objections  brought 
against  its  doctrines. 

This  revelation,  so  necessary  for  man,  is  contained 
in  the  Bible.  We  accept  it  because  the  divine  Spirit 
moves  our  hearts  to  credence  as  we  read  it,  because 
of  the  miracles  by  which  the  message  was  accom- 
panied, because  of  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy  which 
it  witnesses,  and  because  of  what  it  has  done  in  the 
world.  Yet  its  acceptance  is  not  forced  on  our 
reason,  even  by  these  arguments,  as  are  the  demon- 
strations of  mathematics.  We  believe  because  we 
trust  the  character  of  the  divine  Revealer  whose 
Word  the  Bible  is,  and  such  behef  is  meritorious,  for 
it  is  pleasing  to  God  thus  to  be  trusted. 

Aquinas  next  takes  up  the  discussion  of  God's 
existence  and  nature,  the  Trinity,  and  divine  Provi- 
dence, holding  that  the  latter  extends  to  all  per- 
sons and  events,  and  manifests  itself,  among 
various  ways,  in  the  predestination  of  some  to 
eternal  life,  and  the  relegation  of  others  to  ever- 
lasting death. 

The  second  part  of  the  Summa  treats  of  the  nature 
of  man.  He  was  made  for  the  vision  and  enjoyment 
of  God;  in  these  blessings  his  highest  good  is  to  be 
found.  But  this  vision  and  enjoyment  cannot  be 
obtained  without  the  possession  of  the  three  Chris- 
tian virtues  of  faith,  hope,  and  love.  The  power  to 
exercise  these  virtues  is  not  man's  by  nature.  His 
natural  endowment  extended  to  the  attainment  of 


THOMAS  AQUINAS  187 

the  four  natural  virtues,  prudence,  justice,  courage, 
and  self-control;  but  though  these  bring  honor  and 
a  certain  degree  of  happiness,  so  that  he  who  prac- 
tices them  is  far  worthier  than  he  who  does  not,  the 
natural  virtues  are  inadequate  to  secure  the  vision  of 
God.  To  enable  him  to  practice  the  Christian  virtues 
man,  as  originally  created,  was  endowed  with  a  "su- 
peradded gift,"  a  divine  bestowment  of  power  that 
was  in  addition  to  his  natural  capacities.  This  gift 
Adam  had,  and  lost  for  himself  and  all  his  descend- 
ants by  his  sin,  thus  leaving  them  incapable  of  the 
higher  virtues.  This  sinful  condition,  this  lack  of 
original  righteousness,  is  original  sin,  and  has  become 
the  condition  by  his  disobedience  of  all  who  are 
descended  from  Adam. 

The  restoration  of  the  lost  gift,  and  with  it  the 
power  to  attain  the  Christian  virtues,  and  ultimately 
to  reach  the  blessed  vision  of  God,  is  the  work  of 
Christ.  God  could,  indeed,  have  restored  men  with- 
out that  sacrifice,  but  it  did  not  seem  fitting  or  wise 
for  him  so  to  do.  Christ,  by  his  life  and  death  of 
humble  obedience,  merited  grace  for  us;  he  made 
satisfaction  for  our  sins  by  taking  their  punishment 
upon  himself;  he  wrought  reconciliation  between  us 
and  God.  As  a  result  of  Christ's  work,  those  who  are 
the  recipients  of  its  benefits  are  justified — an  instan- 
taneous experience  made  possible  by  God's  wholly 
unmerited  grace,  involving  faith  on  man's  part,  and 
bringing  with  it  forgiveness  of  sins.     But,  as  with 


i88     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Augustine,^  the  most  important  element  in  the  work 
of  salvation  thus  begun  is  not  the  instantaneous 
remission  of  sins,  but  the  constant  infusion  after 
justification  of  '* co-operating  grace,"  whereby  the 
Christian  virtues — above  all,  love — are  stimulated  in 
the  soul.  By  the  aid  to  this  co-operating  grace,  a 
Christian  man  is  enabled  to  do  works  to  which  God 
is  pleased  to  attach  merit,  and  to  reward  with  eternal 
life.  Aquinas  thus  finds  large  room  for  a  doctrine  of 
"works,"  though  holding  that  salvation  is  dependent 
on  Christ  and  made  possible  only  by  the  free  grace 
of  God. 

In  one  very  important  division  of  doctrine  the 
schoolmen,  and  notably  Thomas,  greatly  improved  the 
work  of  Augustine  in  logical  completeness — that  of 
the  sacraments.  Augustine  had  taught  that  men  are 
saved  by  God's  grace,  and  yet  only  in  the  church." 
The  exact  connection  of  the  two  thoughts  he  had 
failed  always  to  make  clear.  They  were  now  brought 
into  logical  association  by  the  doctrine  that  the  grace 
won  by  Christ  for  men  comes  to  them  exclusively 
through  the  channel  of  divinely  appointed  sacraments 
placed  in  the  keeping  of  the  church.  In  Thomas' 
view,  as  in  that  of  the  schoolmen  generally,  this  church 
is  the  visible,  hierarchically  organized  Roman  body, 
of  which  the  pope  is  the  head.  Indeed,  so  convinced 
a  defender  of  the  papacy  was  he  that  he  afiirmed  that 

»  Ante,  pp.  77,  79. 
a  Ante,  pp.  75,  76,  80. 


THOMAS  AQUINAS  189 

submission  to  the  pope  is  needful  for  salvation.  To 
the  priesthood  an  all-important  position  was  assigned 
as  the  divinely  appointed  agents  in  the  dispensation 
of  the  sacraments;  and  in  the  administration,  recep- 
tion, and  due  use  of  the  sacraments  the  most  vital 
part  of  the  religious  life  of  the  church  was  placed. 

According  to  Thomas,  following  Peter  Lombard, 
the  sacraments  are  seven  in  number,  though  not  all  are 
received  by  all  Christians.  To  the  normal  adult  dis- 
ciple five  would  be  administered.  Baptism,  by  which 
he  is  ingrafted  into  the  body  of  Christ,  and  original  sin 
is  forgiven ;  Confirmation,  by  which  vows  made  in 
one's  behalf  in  infant  baptism  are  made  one's  own, 
and  the  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit  augmented;  the 
Lord's  Supper,  by  which  the  disciple  receives  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ;  Penance,  by  which  his 
lapses  are  healed;  and  Extreme  Unction,  by  which 
he  is  spiritually  strengthened  for  the  ordeal  of  death. 
Of  these.  Baptism  and  the  Supper  are  the  pre-emi- 
nent. Two  further  sacraments  may  come  to  some 
Christians :  Marriage,  and  Ordination.  By  the  lat- 
ter a  spiritual  power  is  imparted,  notably  to  be  the 
agent  through  whom  the  miracle  of  Christ's  presence 
in  the  Lord's  Supper  is  wrought.  No  layman  pos- 
sesses this  gift.  The  ordained  priest,  and  he  alone,  it 
is,  upon  whose  words  of  consecration  God  miracu- 
lously changes  the  bread  and  wine  of  the  sacrament 
into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 

Regarding  two  of  these  sacraments  something  more 


1 90     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

should  be  said.  The  Lord's  Supper  was  to  Thomas, 
as  it  had  long  been  to  the  church  in  general,  the 
highest  act  of  worship.  In  it  Christ  is  really  present, 
comes  into  fellowship  with  the  believer,  and  is  offered 
to  the  Father.  It  is  not  merely  a  communion  in 
which  the  disciple  partakes  of  Christ;  it  is  a  sacrifice, 
continuing  that  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  and  inclining 
God  to  be  gracious  to  those  in  whose  behalf  it  is 
offered.  In  it  the  bread  and  wine  are  changed  into 
the  actual  body  and  blood  of  Christ — a  doctrine 
known  as  "  transubstantiation, "  to  which  Thomas 
gave  the  classic  presentation. 

Penance  is  the  sacrament  by  which  the  lapses  of 
the  believer  since  baptism  are  healed.  According 
to  Thomas,  it  consists  of  three  elements,  contrition 
or  sincere  sorrow  for  the  sin ;  confession  to  the  priest 
as  the  spiritual  physician  who  can  apply  the  appro- 
priate remedy  and  pronounce  absolution;  and  satis- 
faction, by  which  the  evil  effects  of  the  sin  can  be 
made  good.  Yet  this  doctrine  of  Penance  was  fur- 
ther modified  by  the  practice  of  indulgences  which 
had  come  into  prominence  in  connection  with  the 
Crusades,  and  which  Thomas,  though  with  great 
caution,  defends.  In  his  exposition,  the  work  of 
Christ  has  more  than  made  satisfaction  for  human 
sin.  The  saints,  also,  have  done  meritorious  deeds 
through  God's  co-operating  grace.  Hence  a  treasury 
of  merit  is  laid  up  for  the  church  in  the  sight  of  God, 
and  its  officers  can  transfer  something  from  it,  on 


THOMAS  AQUINAS  191 

proper  conditions,  to  those  who  have  not  sufficient 
merit  of  their  own. 

At  their  deaths  the  wicked  pass  into  hell.  Those 
who,  by  faithful  use  of  the  means  of  grace,  are  fit 
for  heaven  go  thither  immediately;  but  the  mass  of 
mankind,  who  while  Christian  in  desire,  and  parti- 
cipants in  the  sacraments,  have  followed  Christ  but 
imperfectly,  will  have  further  purification  in  pur- 
gatory before  attaining  heavenly  blessedness.  The 
church,  as  the  body  of  Christ,  whether  on  earth,  in 
purgatory,  or  in  heaven,  is  one;  and  on  this  unity 
of  the  church  is  grounded  the  doctrines  of  prayers  to 
the  saints  and  for  the  dead.  As  members  of  the  one 
body  the  blessed  in  heaven  are  interested  in  the 
struggling  souls  on  earth,  and  those  in  purgatory 
are  not  beyond  the  help  of  our  intercession.  The 
goal  of  all  Christian  hope  is  heaven,  and  its  chief  joy 
will  consist  in  the  vision,  the  comprehension,  and  the 
enjoyment  of  God.  Then  shall  we  know  as  we  are 
known. 

Such  in  barest  outline  is  the  great  theological 
system  to  which  Thomas  gave  expression.  Very 
little  was  original  with  him;  but  he  gave  to  it  its 
classic  form.  Here  and  there  his  definitions  were 
altered  by  those  who  came  after  him.  It  was  at- 
tacked in  many  subsidiary  points  by  Duns  Scotus 
and  his  successors.  It  profoundly  influenced  all  the 
later  Middle  Ages.  It  is,  for  instance,  the  theologi- 
cal basis  of  Dante's  Divine  Comedy.     By  declaration 


192     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  the  late  pope,  Leo  XIII,  as  recently  as  1879, 
Thomas'  expositions  of  theology  and  philosophy  have 
been  affirmed  to  be  of  the  highest  value  as  a  guide 
to  Christian  theology.  He  is,  therefore,  a  living 
force  in  a  large  portion  of  Christendom  to  the  pres- 
ent day. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  was  the  aim  and  significance  of  scholasticism  ? 

2.  Who  were  Anselm?  Abelard?  Bernhard?  Peter 
Lombard  ?    Their  efiForts  ? 

3.  How  did  the  universities  come  into  existence? 

4.  What  was  the  influence  of  the  revival  of  Aristotle  ? 

5.  Who  were  some  of  the  great  schoolmen  of  the  thirteenth 
century  ?  To  what  monastic  orders  did  they  belong  ?  What 
inference  can  be  drawn,  in  general,  as  to  their  piety  ?    Why  ? 

6.  Sketch  the  early  life  of  Thomas  Aquinas.  His  parent- 
age ?     Of  what  order  was  he  a  member  ? 

7.  What  was  Aquinas'  career  as  a  teacher  ?  His  death  ? 
His  character  ? 

8.  What  was  Aquinas'  productivity  as  a  writer?  His 
Summa  ?    Its  method  ? 

9.  What,  according  to  Aquinas,  is  the  object  of  theology? 
What  are  the  sources  of  theology  ?  Why  is  revelation  neces- 
sary? Why  do  we  believe  the  Bible?  Why  is  that  belief 
meritorious  ? 

10.  Wherein  does  Aquinas  find  the  highest  good?  What 
virtues  are  necessary  for  its  attainment?  Are  they  man's 
by  nature  ?    What  did  Adam  lose  ? 

11.  How  is  Adam's  loss  restored  to  man?  What  is  the 
effect  of  justification  ?     What  the  work  of  co-operating  grace  ? 

12.  What  is  the  importance  of  Aquinas'  treatment  of  the 
sacraments?     How  many  are  there? 


THOMAS  AQUINAS  193 

13.  What  is  the  value  of  the  sacraments?  The  Lord's 
Supper  ?     Penance  ?    Indulgences  ? 

14.  What  is  his  doctrine  of  purgatory?  Of  prayers  to 
the  saints  and  for  the  dead?  Wherein  is  the  blessedness  of 
heaven  ? 

15.  What  is  the  present  significance  of  Aquinas? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

W.  J.  Townsend,  The  Great  Schoolmen  of  the  Middle  Ages 

(London,  1881),  pp.  199-241. 
Schafif  (continued  by  David  S.  Schaff),  History  of  the  Christian 

Church  (New  York,  1907),  V,  Pt.  I,  659-77. 


JOHN  WICLIF 


XI 

JOHN  WICLIF 

The  fourteenth  century  was  an  epoch  of  great 
changes.  Mediaeval  feudahsm,  with  its  strongly 
divisive  spirit,  was  giving  way  to  a  new  national 
feeling.  A  real  sense  of  common  unity  of  interest 
was  beginning  to  be  felt  by  the  peoples  of  France, 
of  England,  and  in  a  less  degree  of  Germany.  A 
new  power  was  therefore  rising,  that  of  national  life. 
It  speedily  entered  into  conflict  with  the  papacy,  and 
with  momentous  results.  Though  Boniface  VIII 
asserted  the  extremest  papal  claims,  and  even  de- 
clared in  essential  agreement  with  the  teachings  of 
Aquinas,  in  a  bull  of  1302,^  not  only  that  the  papacy 
ruled  all  secular  princes,  but  that  obedience  to  the 
pope  is  needful  for  salvation,  he  encountered  the 
most  determined  opposition  of  the  French  king, 
Philip  IV,  and  of  the  French  people.  So  strong  did 
the  newly  awakened  French  monarchy  show  itself, 
that  from  1305  to  1377  the  papacy  itself  left  its 
ancient  seat  at  Rome,  and  the  popes  lived  for  the 
most  part  in  Avignon.  All  were  Frenchmen,  and 
were  largely  subservient  to  French  political  interests. 
One  or  two  were  men  of  low  moral  standards  and 
almost  purely  secular  ambitions.     This  transfer  of 

I  The  bull  Unam  sanctam  ecclesiam. 
197 


198     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

residence  and  submission  to  French  influence  lost 
the  papacy  much  of  its  prestige  in  the  rest  of  Europe, 
while  the  popes  of  this  period  carried  their  system 
of  taxation  to  a  height  heretofore  unexampled.  The 
papacy  never  was  more  burdensome,  but  it  had  lost 
the  leadership  and  high  spiritual  purpose  which  alone 
could  make  its  burdens  endurable.  Men  were  be- 
ginning to  criticize  it  from  many  points  of  view. 

The  Franciscans  and  Dominicans  had  lost  much 
of  the  zeal  which  had  made  them  so  useful  in  the 
years  following  their  foundation,  while  the  popes 
were  supporting  the  looser  element  in  them  in  laxer 
interpretation  of  the  "rules."  The  character  of  the 
clergy  was  too  often  unworthy.  Theology,  which  in 
the  teachings  of  Aquinas  had  seemed  a  science 
solidly  buttressed  by  philosophy,  was  now  largely 
held  to  be  philosophically  improbable,  to  be  accepted 
only  because  taught  by  the  church.  Religion  was 
not  declining;  but  the  mediaeval  institutions  of  re- 
ligion were  more  and  more  showing  themselves  inad- 
equate. Earnest  men,  like  Dante'  and  WilKam  of 
Occam,  were  opposing  the  claims  of  the  papacy  to 
control  the  state;  and  one  bold  voice,  that  of  Mar- 
silius  of  Padua,  in  1324,*  questioned  the  whole  papal 
system;  but  they  were  yet  relatively  few,  and  the 
mediaeval  scheme  of  doctrine,  with  its  great  hierarch- 

1  In  his  De  monarchia. 

2  In  his  Defensor  pacts,  written  when  a  professor  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris. 


JOHN  WICLIF  199 

ical  structure,  though  inwardly  weakened,  stood  ap- 
parently as  strongly  as  ever. 

Yet  in  one  region  of  Europe,  before  the  fourteenth 
century  came  to  a  close,  the  most  effective,  if  not  the 
most  logical,  critic  of  the  papacy  that  had  yet  ap- 
peared was  to  arise  and  to  lead  in  a  movement  for 
reform  of  no  little  importance.  This  reformer  was 
John  Wiclif.  England,  thanks  to  its  insular  position 
and  the  direct  relations  of  its  kings  since  the  time  of 
William  the  Conqueror  to  the  great  land-holders,  had 
possessed  an  unusual  sense  of  solidarity  of  interest. 
The  national  feeling  had  there  developed  to  a  degree 
only  comparable  to  that  of  France.  Under  Edward 
III,  in  1339,  England  began  the  long  war  with 
France,  incidents  of  which  were  to  be  the  English 
victories  of  Crecy  (1346)  and  Poitiers  (1356).  It  was 
at  the  time  that  the  papacy  had  its  seat  at  Avignon, 
and  was  largely  under  French  influences.  Naturally 
the  payment  of  taxes  to  such  popes,  and  the  appoint- 
ment by  them  of  their  French  proteges  to  English 
ecclesiastical  posts,  were  looked  upon  by  a  large 
party  in  England  as  aids  to  England's  enemies. 
Statutes  known  as  those  of  "Pro visors"  and  "Prae- 
munire" were  passed  by  Parliament,  in  135 1  and 
1353,  intended  to  limit  papal  appointments  and  ap- 
peals to  the  papal  courts;  and,  in  1366,  Parliament 
refused  to  pay  to  the  pope  the  taxes  granted  by  King 
John  in  1 2 13.  It  was  this  feeling  of  resistance  to 
what  seemed  foreign  aggression  that  Wiclif  was  to 


200    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

share,  and  it  was  to  be  the  beginning  from  which  he 
was  to  advance  to  far  more  radical  criticisms  of  the 
papacy. 

John  Wiclif  was  born  probably  in  the  village  of 
Hipswell  in  the  county  of  northern  England  known 
as  Yorkshire,  at  some  unknown  date  which  has  been 
conjectured  to  have  been  about  1324.  Of  his  early 
life  almost  nothing  is  known,  save  that  he  went  as  a 
young  student  to  Oxford,  and  gained  great  distinction 
there  as  a  scholar  and  a  teacher.  When  he  emerges 
into  the  light  of  history  it  is  as  a  man  of  high  philo- 
sophical attainments,  who  departed  from  current 
theological  conceptions  in  the  direction  of  a  renewed 
Augustinianism,  such  as  Thomas  of  Bradwardine 
(i  290-1349)  had  made  influential  at  Oxford.  We 
shall  see  this  in  his  emphasis  on  predestination,  and 
his  strong  sense  that  religion  is  a  relation  of  God  to 
the  individual  human  soul. 

It  was  not  merely  in  Oxford  that  Wiclif  had  won 
distinction.  In  1366  or  1367,  as  one  of  the  chap- 
lains of  Edward  III,  he  put  forth  a  vigorous  defense 
of  the  action  of  Parliament,  already  mentioned,  in 
refusing  further  payment  of  taxes  to  the  pope.  From 
this  publication  Wiclif's  open  opposition  to  papal 
encroachments  may  be  dated.  He  soon  followed  it 
with  others.  By  1374  he  had  become  a  doctor  of 
divinity.  In  April  of  that  year  he  was  nominated  by 
the  king  to  the  pastorate  of  Lutterworth,  and,  in 
July,  he  was  sent  as  a  royal  commissioner  to  treat 


JOHN  WICLIF  20I 

with  the  representatives  of  Pope  Gregory  XI,  regard- 
ing the  vexed  question  of  ecclesiastical  appointments 
in  England.  He  was  evidently  in  high  favor  at 
court. 

Thus  far  Wiclif  had  gone  but  little,  if  at  all,  farther 
in  his  criticisms  than  many  of  the  Franciscans  had 
done.  His  motives  were  opposition  to  the  wealth  and 
corruption  of  the  church,  and  patriotic  resistance  to 
papal  encroachments.  His  argument  was  curiously 
mediaeval.  All  authority  is  a  "lordship,"  a  fief,  held 
by  its  possessor  from  God,  who  is  overlord  of  all. 
As  a  temporal  fief,  if  misused,  is  forfeited,  so  spirit- 
ual lordships  are  vacated  if  not  rightly  employed,  or 
if  the  holder  is  unfit.  If  an  ecclesiastic  is  of  bad 
character,  in  "mortal  sin,"  or  if  he  uses  his  office  to 
accumulate  riches  or  gain  temporal  power,  things 
inconsistent  with  the  purpose  for  which  the  ministry 
was  established  by  Christ,  his  "lordship"  is  for- 
feited, and  may  be  taken  from  him  by  the  civil 
authorities.  The  enforcement  of  ecclesiastical  claims 
by  spiritual  penalties,  which  in  mediaeval  practice 
would  have  followed  such  attempts  to  seize  the 
possessions  of  the  clergy,  is  not  to  be  feared,  since 
even  the  pope's  excommunication  is  ineffective  unless 
he  against  whom  it  is  directed  is  really  deserving  of 
condemnation  in  the  sight  of  God.  Only  the  "law 
of  Christ"  as  laid  down  in  the  New  Testament  is  of 
final  authority  as  a  criterion  of  rightful  action.  In 
its  last  analysis  the  church  consists  only  of  the  "pre- 


202     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

destinate;"  but  as  they  are  not  easily  distinguished, 
the  practical  test  is  apparent  conformity  to  the 
"law  of  Christ." 

These  views  commended  Wiclif  to  the  favor  of  the 
most  powerful,  but  one  of  the  least  popular,  of  the 
English  nobles,  John  of  Gaunt,  duke  of  Lancaster, 
fourth  son  of  Edward  III.  John  was  without  a 
spark  of  religious  sympathy  with  Wiclif,  but  he 
headed  a  hungry  party  who  thought  to  profit  by  de- 
spoiling the  English  church,  and  believed  that  in 
Wiclif  he  had  one  whom  he  could  use  as  a  tool  for 
that  purpose.  John's  support  was  to  be  a  safeguard 
to  Wiclif,  but  the  latter  was  too  profoundly  religious 
to  enter  into  real  sympathy  with  that  greedy  noble's 
hopes,  and  probably  too  guileless  wholly  to  fathom 
his  plans.  Thanks  to  this  support,  an  attempt  to 
bring  Wiclif  to  trial  before  the  Convocation  of  the 
Province  of  Canterbury,  gathered  in  St.  Paul's  in 
London  in  February,  1377,  utterly  failed,  the  pro- 
ceedings being  frustrated  by  an  angry  personal  en- 
counter in  the  church  between  John  of  Gaunt  and  the 
Bishop  of  London.  Gregory  XI  now  issued  five 
bulls  condemning  Wiclif  s  opinions  in  the  matters  of 
the  withdrawal  of  property  from  its  unworthy  pos- 
sessors and  excommunication,  and  comparing  him 
with  Marsilius  of  Padua.  But  court  favor  still  served 
the  reformer.  Though  Edward  III  died  in  June, 
1377,  and  John  of  Gaunt  went  into  temporary  politi- 
cal eclipse,  the  mother  of  the  young  king,  Richard  II, 


JOHN  WICLIF  203 

proved  Wiclif's  friend,  and  through  her  aid  an 
attempt  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the 
Bishop  of  London  to  discipline  him  was  frustrated 
in  1378.  For  the  next  three  years  Wiclif  was  not 
molested. 

It  was  during  these  three  years  of  comparative 
peace,  apparently,  that  he  achieved  two  of  his  great- 
est services.  Convinced  of  the  need  of  popular 
preaching,  as  Valdez  and  Francis  had  been  before, 
and  as  John  Wesley  was  to  be  in  a  later  age,  he  now 
began  sending  out  "poor  priests,"  that  is,  unen- 
dowed preachers,  not  necessarily  clergymen,  who 
should  proclaim  the  gospel  in  churches,  in  market- 
places, in  the  fields,  wherever  they  could  gather  an 
audience.  The  condition  of  the  lower  classes  of 
England  was  such  as  to  secure  them  a  ready  hearing. 
That  frightful  pestilence  known  as  the  "black 
death'"  had  ravaged  England  in  1348-49,  1361,  and 
1369,  and,  especially  in  the  first  attack,  had  been 
terribly  destructive.  Probably  half  the  population, 
possibly  more,  had  perished.  The  whole  labor  sit- 
uation was  unsettled  for  years  by  the  consequent 
scarcity  of  workmen,  and  the  attempts  of  Parliament 
to  regulate  work  and  wages  by  legislation.  The 
lower  classes  of  the  population  were  in  a  state  of 
profound  discontent;   and  they  listened  eagerly  to 

I  The  same  disease  as  that  known  as  the  "  bubonic  plague, " 
and  fatal  at  the  present,  1908,  in  India.  The  unsanitary  con- 
ditions of  the  Middle  Ages  made  it  destructive  throughout  Europe. 


204    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Wiclif's  ''poor  priests,"  whose  denunciation  of  the 
wealth  and  arrogance  of  the  high  clergy,  and  asser- 
tion that  the  "law  of  Christ"  demanded  "humihty, 
love,  and  poverty" — to  quote  Wiclif's  own  phrase — 
found  ready  response. 

To  aid  these  preachers,  and  to  give  to  the  people 
generally  the  Word  of  God  which  WicHf  was  con- 
vinced was  the  only  final  authority  for  the  Christian, 
he  now  undertook  with  his  friends  the  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  from  the  Latin  Vulgate  into  Enghsh. 
It  was  a  time  of  much  interest  in  the  developing 
language.  Sermons  were  being  widely  preached  in 
it.  Its  use  had  recently  been  estabhshed  in  law- 
court  practice.  WicHf  was  therefore  following  the 
spirit  of  the  age  in  putting  the  Bible  into  the  English 
tongue.  Of  the  greatness  of  his  service  there  can  be 
no  question.  The  gospels  and  Psalms  had  been 
translated  or  paraphrased  repeatedly  from  early 
Anglo-Saxon  times;  but  these  versions  had  at  best  a 
very  hmited  circulation.  The  new  work,  especially 
the  New  Testament  which  was  from  WicHf's  own 
pen,  was  idiomatic,  forceful,  readable.  He  gave  the 
whole  Bible  to  his  nation;  and,  in  so  doing,  not 
merely  contributed  to  its  rehgious  development,  but 
exercised  a  formative  influence  upon  all  subsequent 
Enghsh  versions  of  the  Scriptures,  and  upon  the 
general  growth  of  the  Enghsh  language. 

While  engaged  in  this  work  during  his  three  years 
of  comparative  peace,  events  were  occurring  which 


JOHN  WICLIF  205 

caused  Wiclif  to  advance  to  far  more  radical  criti- 
cisms of  the  papacy  than  he  had  hitherto  uttered. 
The  death  of  Gregory  XI  in  1378  found  the  cardinals, 
a  majority  of  whom  were  Frenchmen,  at  Rome. 
The  pressure  of  the  Roman  populace  and  other  in- 
fluences compelled  the  choice  of  an  Italian  pope, 
Urban  VI;  but  that  election  the  same  cardinals  re- 
pudiated a  few  months  later  and  selected  another 
head  for  the  church  in  the  person  of  Clement  VII, 
who  returned  to  Avignon.  All  Europe  was  distressed 
at  the  spectacle  of  two  rivals  in  office,  each  with  about 
an  equal  following.  The  French  pope  ultimately  had 
the  allegiance  of  France,  Spain,  Naples,  and  Scodand; 
the  Roman,  of  England,  Germany,  and  most  of  Italy. 
The  scandalous  schism  thus  begun  was  to  last  till 
healed,  after  infinite  labor,  by  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance in  141 7.  The  sight  of  two  popes  mutually 
anathematizing  each  other,  and  proclaiming  cru- 
sades, the  one  against  the  other,  turned  Wichf  now 
fully  against  the  papacy.  Could  men  so  un-Christ- 
like  in  action  be  Uving  rightly  according  to  "the  law 
of  Christ;"  and  if  not  so  Hving,  had  they  not  for- 
feited their  "lordship"  ?  He  could  but  answer  that 
such  popes  were  "vicars  of  Anti-christ."  But  he 
now  went  farther.  He  criticized  not  the  papacy  only, 
but  the  whole  priestly  order  which  drew  its  income 
from  revenues  and  endowments,  the  monks  with 
their  landed  possessions,  and  even  the  mendicant 
friars,  whom  he  had  formerly  favored,  whose  vow 


2o6     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  poverty  was  so  often  really  ignored.  Applying  the 
test  of  conformity  to  Scripture,  Wiclif  now  rejected 
indulgences,  a  treasury  of  good  works,  private  con- 
fession, the  worship  of  saints,  pilgrimages,  and  pur- 
gatory, and  asserted  the  spiritual  equality  of  all 
priests. 

Wiclif  s  greatest  breach  with  popular  religious 
conceptions  was  occasioned  by  his  denial,  in  the 
spring  of  138 1,  of  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation. 
It  aroused  antagonism  as  almost  nothing  else  could 
have  done.  No  behef  was  more  widespread  at  the 
period,  and  none  seemed  more  sacred  to  multitudes 
than  the  faith  that  when  the  priest  pronounces  the 
words  of  consecration  the  elements  are  transformed 
in  their  substance  into  the  very  body  and  blood  of 
Christ.^  Roman  CathoHc  devotion  still  cHngs  with 
pecuHar  affection  to  this  doctrine  which  seems  to 
bring  Christ  into  vital  contact  with  present  life.  To 
Wiclif,  however,  it  appeared  unscriptural  and  ir- 
rational. His  own  view  was  essentially  that  of  a 
spiritual  presence  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament  which 
Augustine  had  taught.  But  something  more  than  its 
supposed  unscripturalness  or  irrationahty  may  have 
led  Wiclif  to  the  dangerous  task  of  attacking  transub- 
stantiation. He  was  at  war  with  what  he  deemed 
an  un-Christlike  body  of  clergy  who  were  unjustly 
lording  over  God's  heritage.  Their  highest  power, 
the  power  no  layman  was  beheved  to  possess,  was 

I  See  ante,  p.  190. 


JOHN  WICLIF  207 

that  on  their  consecrating  act,  the  miracle  of  transub- 
stantiation  is  wrought.  Deny  that  miracle,  and  the 
chief  distinction  between  clergy  and  laity,  the  main 
spiritual  buttress  of  clerical  claims,  is  swept  away.' 

This  attack  by  WicHf  cost  him  many  friends. 
The  University  of  Oxford  condemned  his  opinions, 
though,  such  was  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  there 
held,  without  mentioning  his  name.  Even  untheo- 
logical  John  of  Gaunt  urged  him  to  silence.  Within 
a  few  weeks,  however,  a  great  disaster  overtook  the 
WicHfian  cause — a  disaster  for  which  Wiclif  was  only 
in  remote  degree  responsible.  The  years-long  discon- 
tent of  the  lower  classes  has  already  been  mentioned.* 
In  June,  138 1,  it  flared  up  in  a  terrible  insurrection 
directed  against  what  the  peasants  deemed  the  forces 
of  oppression.  Deeds  and  mortgages  were  burned, 
lawyers  killed,  the  inns  of  court  at  the  Temple  in 
London  and  John  of  Gaunt' s  palace  were  destroyed, 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  some  of  the  king's 
leading  agents  in  the  collection  of  taxes  were  mur- 
dered. King  Richard  II,  himself,  was  in  great  peril. 
Fierce  as  it  was,  the  storm  soon  passed;  but  the 
nobles  were  ruthless  in  their  acts  of  repression  and  the 
feehng  was  widespread  that  WicHf  s  attacks  on  the 
clergy,  and  especially  the  preaching  of  his  "poor 
priests,"  were  responsible  for  the  disorder.     Some 

I  The  suggestion  is  that  of  R.  L.  Poole,  Wy cliff e  and  Move- 
ments for  Reform,  p.  104. 
*  Ante,  p.  203. 


/ 


2o8     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

influence  may  have  come  from  Wiclif's  preachers, 
though  he  himself  had  no  direct  share  in  the  revolt ; 
but  the  movement  as  a  whole  was  due  to  the  working 
of  long-standing  economic  grievances. 

The  discredit  into  which  the  peasant  revolt 
brought  Wiclif's  cause  for  the  time  being  embold- 
ened his  enemies,  and  in  May,  1382,  his  doctrines 
were  condemned  by  a  synod  held  in  London.  His 
popularity  remained  too  great,  however,  for  success- 
ful personal  attack.  He  wrote  much  in  vigorous 
English  tracts  and  in  Latin.  He  pushed  forward  the 
cause  he  had  at  heart  to  his  utmost.  It  was  while  in 
his  own  church  at  Lutterworth  on  December  28, 
1384,  that  he  suffered  the  paralytic  stroke  from 
which  he  died  three  days  later. 

WicHf's  chief  characteristic  was  moral  earnest- 
ness. He  was  a  patriot  anxious  to  save  England 
from  foreign  tyranny;  but  even  more  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian intent  on  advancing  the  Kingdom  of  God.  He 
broke  with  the  current  religious  system  on  many 
points.  He  rejected  the  papacy,  at  least  of  such 
popes  as  were  then  in  power,  denounced  the  wealth 
of  the  clergy,  criticized  the  monks,  rejected  transub- 
stantiation,  urged  preaching,  proclaimed  the  unique 
authority  of  the  Scriptures,  gave  England  the  Bible 
in  its  own  tongue.  He  evidently  regarded  vital  re- 
ligion as  an  inward  and  personal  experience.  His 
view  of  it  was  far  deeper  than  that  of  most  men  of 
his  age.     These  are  great  services;  but  they  hardly 


JOHN  WICLIF  209 

entitle  him  to  be  called,  as  he  has  often  been  styled, 
*'the  morning-star  of  the  Reformation."  His  con- 
ceptions of  rehgion,  however  profound,  were  the 
familiar  mediaeval  Roman  Catholic  thoughts  of 
ascetic  "apostohc  poverty,"  and  of  the  gospel  as  a 
"new  law."  He  had  no  new  theory  of  the  way  of 
salvation,  or  of  Christ's  relations  to  men,  to  offer. 
Hence  he  was  no  Luther.  Rather  he  was  one  of  the 
most  radical  and  deserving  of  the  mediaeval  reform- 
ers— a  man  who  belonged  to  the  Middle  Ages,  not  to 
the  new  day. 

This  failure  to  give  to  his  age  that  which  was 
vitally  new  probably  accounts  for  the  surprising 
fruitlessness  of  his  movement  in  England.  At  his 
death  he  had  a  large  following,  and  on  the  whole 
royal  tolerance  made  easy  the  path  of  his  party  till 
the  downfall  of  Richard  II  in  1399.  No  church  was 
founded,  however.  On  the  accession  of  John  of 
Gaunt's  son,  Henry  IV,  first  of  the  House  of  Lan- 
caster, the  royal  policy  was  changed  to  one  of  perse- 
cution. The  political  significance  of  the  "  Lollards," 
as  Wiclif's  followers  were  called,  ended  with  the 
execution  of  their  leader.  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  in  141 7, 
and  their  reHgious  importance  did  not  long  survive. 
The  one  lasting  influence  of  the  movement  in  Eng- 
land was  the  impulse  which  it  undoubtedly  gave  to 
the  reading  of  the  Bible;  and  the  number  of  manu-^ 
scripts  of  WicHf's  translation  which  have  survived, 
in  spite  of  attempts  to  destroy  them,  is  remarkable. 


2IO    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

In  one  remote  region  of  Europe,  however,  Wiclif's 
work  was  to  have  a  powerful  influence.  The  Bo- 
hemian reformer,  John  Huss,  did  Httle  more  doc- 
trinally  than  reproduce  Wichf's  opinions,  often  in 
Wichf's  very  words.  More  conservative  intellectu- 
ally, Huss  did  not  share  Wiclif's  rejection  of  transub- 
stantiation.  Unhke  WicHf,  he  urged  the  right  of  the 
laity  to  partake  of  the  wine  as  well  as  of  the  bread  in 
communion.  In  conduct  Huss  was  much  more  a 
man  of  action  than  WicUf.  A  teacher  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Prague  from  1398  onward,  he  became,  in 
1402,  the  preacher  of  the  Bethlehem  church  in  that 
city.  During  the  reign  of  Richard  II  of  England, 
whose  queen  was  a  Bohemian  princess,  many  Bo- 
hemian students  had  been  attracted  to  Oxford  and 
had  returned  with  Wichf's  writings.  Of  these  Huss 
made  a  thorough  study.  They  appealed  to  his  Bo- 
hemian patriotism  by  reason  of  their  rejection  of 
foreign  authority,  and  soon  to  his  rehgious  spirit  by 
their  bold  criticism  of  the  evils  of  the  age.  To  him, 
as  to  Wichf,  Christ  is  the  sole  head  of  the  church,^ 
only  the  "predestinate"  are  its  members,  and  all 
ministers  are  essentially  equal  in  spiritual  powers.  In 
sermons  of  great  popular  influence  Huss  denounced 
the  corruption  of  the  Bohemian  clergy,  and  advo- 
cated Wiclifian  positions.     The  Bohemian  element 

I  Too  much  must  not  be  made  of  this  as  a  "Protestant" 
declaration.  Even  so  good  a  churchman  as  Pierre  d'Ailli,  who 
was  a  leader  in  Huss's  condemnation  at  Constance,  taught  the 
headship  of  Christ  in  the  most  explicit  terms. 


JOHN  WICLIF  211 

in  the  University  and  city  of  Prague  largely  sympa- 
thized with  him,  and  through  his  influence  a  decree 
was  obtained  from  King  Wenzel,  by  which  the  Bo- 
hemians, though  a  decided  minority,  were  given  a 
controlKng  influence  in  the  University.  The  result 
was  that  Huss  became  the  chief  power  in  that  seat  of 
learning,  while  the  disgruntled  Germans  and  other 
foreigners  regarded  it  as  unorthodox  and  estabhshed, 
in  1409,  the  University  of  Leipzig. 

These  events  led  to  a  breach  between  Huss  and 
his  archbishop,  and  in  1410  he  was  excommunicated 
for  WicUfianism.  The  contest  was  now  fully  on, 
and  Huss  enjoyed  large  popular  support  as  well  as 
the  somewhat  fickle  favor  of  King  Wenzel.  The 
situation  attracted  European  attention,  and  the  em- 
peror Sigismund  now  summoned  Huss  to  appear  be- 
fore the  great  general  Council  of  Constance,  which 
had  been  called,  primarily,  through  the  work  of  the 
leading  theologians  of  the  University  of  Paris,  to  heal 
the  schism  and  effect  reforms  in  the  church.  Thither 
he  went,  protected,  as  he  certainly  supposed,  by  a 
safe  conduct  from  the  emperor.  He  was,  however, 
promptly  imprisoned,  and  a  pitiful  contest  ensued. 
On  May  4,  141 5,  the  council  condemned  Wiclif's 
views,  and  ordered  his  body  cast  out  of  consecrated 
ground.  It  urged  Huss  to  yield  his  opinions  to  its 
authority.  The  leaders  of  the  church  sincerely  felt 
not  only  that  a  council  was  wiser  than  any  individual 
in  the  church,  but  that  only  by  the  recognition  of  the 


212     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

duty  of  all  Christians  to  submit  their  private  con- 
victions to  its  authority  could  they  rid  the  church  of 
its  rival  popes  and  end  the  scandal  of  the  schism. 
To  allow  Huss  to  assert  his  judgment  against  that  of 
the  council  would  be  to  lose  all  that  the  council  had 
won  for  church  unity.  They  were  perfectly  honest 
in  this  position.  But  Huss  was  equally  sincere.  He 
would  play  no  tricks  with  his  conscience.  He  would 
not  deny  what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth  even  when 
the  council  declared  him  in  error.  It  was  a  contest 
of  opposing  principles,  and  the  future  was  with  Huss, 
for  the  principle  for  which  he  stood  was  essentially 
the  right  of  private  judgment  which  Protestantism 
was  to  assert.  Firm  in  his  opinions,  he  was  con- 
demned by  the  council  as  a  heretic,  and  on  July  6, 
141 5,  was  burned  at  Constance,  meeting  his  death 
with  heroic  firmness  and  Christian  courage. 

In  Bohemia  Huss  was  regarded  as  a  national  hero. 
A  large  part  of  its  population  openly  supported  his 
cause,  and,  in  141 9,  the  terrible  civil  wars  began.  The 
Hussites  gradually  divided  into  conservative  and 
radical  parties,  and  the  latter  was  nearly  extinguished 
in  battle,  in  1434;  but  its  remnants  survived.  Out 
of  some  of  them,  and  of  others  influenced  by  Walden- 
sian  views,  which  had  long  found  a  following  in  Bo- 
hemia, the  Unitas  Fratrum  came  into  being  soon  after 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.  This  communion 
was  much  modified  by  the  influence  of  the  Lutheran 
reformation;   but  it  is  the  spiritual  ancestor  of  the 


JOHN  WICLIF  213 

modern  Moravians.  Thus  Wiclif's  influence  long 
survived,  in  modified  form,  in  a  land  which  he  never 
saw  and  which  was  far  from  that  in  which  he  did  his 
work. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  influence  had  the  rise  of  the  national  spirit  on 
the  fortunes  of  the  papacy? 

2.  How  came  the  papacy  to  transfer  its  seat  to   Avignon 
and  how  long  did  it  remain  there  ? 

3.  Who  were  some  of  the  opponents    of    extreme  papal 
claims  ? 

4.  What  evidences  of  opposition  to  the  papacy  are  to  be 
found  in  England  under  Edward  III  ? 

5.  Sketch  Wiclif's  early  life.     When  and  how  did  he  come 
to  oppose  the  papacy  ? 

6.  What  was  his  theory  of  "lordship"?    When   did   a 
clergyman  forfeit  his  office  ? 

7.  Sketch  Wiclif's  relations  to  John  of  Gaunt.     Why  ? 

8.  What  condition  of  the  lower  orders  favored  Wiclif's 
work? 

9.  Speak  of  his  "poor  priests"  and  of  his  translation  of  the 
Bible.     Its  importance  ? 

10.  What  effect  had   the  papal  schism  on  Wiclif?      To 
what  new  positions  did  he  advance  after  1378? 

11.  What  were  the  reasons  for  Wiclif's  rejection  of  tran- 
substantiation  ?    What  was  its  effect  ? 

12.  What  consequences  for  Wiclif's  work  had  the  great 
peasant  rising  of  1381  ? 

13.  Wiclif s  last  days?     His  character?     Was  he  "the 
morning  star  of  the  Reformation"  ? 

14.  Was  Wiclif's  work  permanent  in   England?     Where 
was  it  fruitful  ? 


214     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

15.  Outline  the  career  of  John  Huss.     How  did  he  re- 
semble and  how  did  he  differ  from  Wichf  ? 

16.  When,  how,  and  for  what  did  Huss  die  ?     The  results 
of  his  work  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

G.  V.  Lechler,  John  Wiclif  and  His  English  Precursors  (Lon- 
don, 1878,  1881,  1884). 

Johann  Loserth,  Wiclif  and  Huss  (London,  1885). 

Rudolf  Buddensieg,  Wiclif,  Patriot  and  Reformer  (London, 
1884). 

R.  L.  Poole,  Wy cliff e  and  Movements  for  Reform  (London, 
1889). 

Lewis  Sergeant,  John  Wyclif  (New  York,  1893). 

J.  F.  Hurst,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (Cincinnati, 
1897),  II,  12-42. 


MARTIN  LUTHER 


XII 

MARTIN  LUTHER 

The  period  from  Wiclif  to  Luther  was  one  of 
great  modification  of  mediaeval  conditions  of  civil 
life  and  habits  of  thought.  The  tendency  toward 
national  unity,  already  noted,  had  increased,  and  to 
England  and  France,  Spain  was  now  added  as  the 
most  forceful  sister  in  the  family  of  nations.  In 
Germany  no  such  unity  existed ;  but  even  there  strong 
principalities,  like  Saxony,  Hesse,  Brandenburg,  and 
Bavaria,  were  building  within  the  Empire.  The  dis- 
covery of  a  New  World,  and  of  the  sea  route  to  India, 
had  immensely  widened  men's  geographical  knowl- 
edge and  spread  wide  a  vague  feeling  that  they  stood 
on  the  threshold  of  a  new  age.  The  revival  of  learn- 
ing had  given  to  the  educated  world  a  new  point  of 
view,  in  which  interest  in  the  thought  of  Greece  and 
Rome  displaced  the  influence  of  scholastic  theology. 
It  was  essentially  a  "  return  to  the  sources ; "  and  was 
leading  to  a  re-examination  of  that  which  the  Middle 
Ages  had  accepted  as  authoritative — a  re-examina- 
tion that  was  slowly  beginning  to  be  applied  even  in 
the  realm  of  religious  thought.  In  poUtical  admin- 
istration the  layman  was  wresting  his  old-time  pre- 
eminence from  the  ecclesiastic.  A  new  individualism 
was  taking  the  place  of  the  strong  corporate  feeling 
217 


2i8     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  world  was  in  ferment  to  a 
degree  that  had  not  before  been  manifested  since  the 
downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

In  the  rehgious  realm  the  situation  was  at  once 
discouraging  and  hopeful.  The  institutions  of  re- 
ligion had  become  increasingly  corrupt  and  ineffi- 
cient. The  slowly  growing  sense  of  the  need  of  re- 
form in  the  administration  not  merely  of  the  papacy 
but  of  the  church  in  general  had  found  expression, 
stimulated  by  the  scandal  of  the  papal  schism,  in  the 
great  Councils  of  Pisa  (1409) ;  of  Constance  (1414-18), 
when  the  schism  was  ended  and  Huss  condemned;^ 
and  of  Basel  (1431-49).  These  had  attempted  to 
change  the  papacy  from  an  absolute  to  a  constitu- 
tional spiritual  monarchy,  controlled  by  councils  as  a 
king  is  by  a  parHament.  The  effort  had  been  an 
ignominious  failure.  The  church  could  not  be  re- 
formed without  revolution.  In  the  period  following 
the  collapse  of  the  conciliar  movement  the  popes 
became  more  and  more  engrossed  in  Italian  secular 
pontics.  Their  spiritual  interests  were  largely  neg- 
lected. But  the  taxation  imposed  by  the  papacy  had 
been  rising  for  a  century  and  a  half.  The  introduc- 
tion of  new  means  of  money  raising  had  been  fre- 
quent, and  the  exactions  of  the  Roman  court,  to 
which  a  revenue  flowed  far  greater  than  that  of  any 
contemporary  king,  were  the  scandal  of  Europe. 
Indeed,  so  notorious  were  they,  and  so  widely  were 

I  Ante,  pp.  211,  212. 


MARTIN  LUTHER  219 

they  the  object  of  hatred,  that  many  scholars  are 
inchned  to  see  in  them  the  principal  root  of  the  Refor- 
mation. This  view,  however,  fails  to  do  justice  to 
the  reUgious  nature  of  the  movement,  though  it 
accounts  for  a  large  part  of  Luther's  early  support. 
Corruption  at  the  head  led  of  course  to  much  similar 
inefficiency  in  the  lower  officers  of  the  great  hierarch- 
ical edifice. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  were  many  signs  of  a 
deepening  popular  rehgious  life.  In  Spain,  under 
Ferdinand,  Isabella,  and  Cardinal  Ximenes,  a  very 
thoroughgoing  movement  for  the  improvement  of  the 
morals  and  education  of  the  clergy,  without  any  favor 
toward  doctrinal  changes,  however,  was  in  progress 
from  1479  onward.  Similar,  though  less  extensive, 
efforts  were  made  a  little  later  in  England.  In  Ger- 
many, the  Bible  was  being  widely  read  by  laymen, 
no  less  than  fourteen  editions  in  the  language  of  the 
people  being  printed  between  1466  and  1520,  while 
the  gospels  and  epistles  in  German  were  issued 
twenty-five  times  before  15 18.  Preaching  was  being 
encouraged.  The  rehgious  orders  were  undergoing 
a  reformation,  in  which  none  shared  more  conspicu- 
ously than  that  of  the  Augustinians  of  which  Luther 
was  to  be  a  member.  There  is  much  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  a  simple,  heartfelt  religious  life  among  the 
people,  and  several  German  governments  were  even 
taking  steps  to  improve  the  clergy  and  do  away  with 
some  of  the  worst  abuses.     Indeed,  the  last  years  of 


220     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  fifteenth  and  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
turies were  witnessing  what  can  be  called  nothing 
less  than  a  revival  of  religion  in  Germany.  Its 
dominant  notes  seem  to  have  a  sense  of  sin  and  fear 
of  divine  judgment,  and  it  led,  as  men's  tempera- 
ments inclined,  to  increased  devotion  to  relics,  pil- 
grimages, and  indulgences,  which  were  never  more 
popular,  or  to  more  heartfelt  and  inward  evidences 
of  piety.  Luther's  work  was  not  an  awakening  out 
of  spiritual  deadness.  It  was  made  possible  by  an 
immense  antecedent  quickening  of  popular  religious 
feeHng.  To  note  this  is,  however,  to  detract  in  no 
way  from  his  world-transforming  significance. 

Martin  Luther  was  born  in  Eisleben,  in  central 
Germany,  on  November  lo,  1483.  His  parents  were 
peasants.  His  father  was  a  miner.  Both  were  strict, 
hard-working.  God-fearing  people;  and  of  energy 
and  ambition,  anxious  that  their  son  should  have  an 
education  and  be  better  placed  in  the  world  than 
they.  In  1497,  therefore,  the  boy  was  sent  to  school 
in  Magdeburg,  and  from  1498  to  1501  in  Eisenach, 
where  he  was  befriended  by  Frau  Ursula  Gotta.  In 
the  year  last  mentioned  he  entered  the  University  of 
Erfurt,  from  which  he  graduated  as  "Master  of 
Arts"  in  1505,  after  a  student  career  of  high  credit 
from  the  standpoints  of  sociabihty,  scholarship,  and 
character.  His  father  intended  him  for  a  lawyer. 
In  spite  of  his  cheerful  companionableness,  however, 
the  sense  of  his  personal  unworthiness  in  the  sight  of 


MARTIN  LUTHER  221 

God  weighed  heavily  upon  him.  The  question, 
"  How  may  I  gain  a  gracious  God  ?  "  which  may  be 
called  the  ground  note  of  the  contemporary  German 
rehgious  revival,  burdened  him.  In  spite  of  his  fath- 
er's opposition,  he  determined  to  seek  spiritual  peace 
in  the  monastic  life,  and  on  July  17,  1505,  entered  the 
Augustinian  monastery  in  Erfurt. 

Yet  the  wished-for  rest  of  soul  did  not  come.  He 
studied,  he  prayed,  he  practiced  monastic  austeri- 
ties, he  was  looked  upon  by  his  associates  as  a 
pattern  of  monastic  piety,  but  he  felt  that  he  was 
wrong  in  the  sight  of  God.  He  viewed  Christ  as  a 
stern  judge.  But  gradually  his  conversation  with 
some  of  the  earnest  men  of  the  order,  notably  Johann 
von  Staupitz,  and  his  reading  of  Bernhard,  Augus- 
tine, and  especially  of  the  PauHne  epistles,  brought 
him  to  a  new  point  of  view.  By  1 507  or  1508,  he  had 
come  to  feel  that  these  external  efforts  after  righteous- 
ness in  the  sight  of  God  were  valueless;  and  that 
justification  is  a  divine  gift  received  through  "faith'* 
alone.  The  soul  throws  itself  in  trustful  confidence 
on  God's  promises,  and  enters  thereby  into  a  new 
relationship  through  Christ — a  relationship  imme- 
diate, personal,  and  full  of  good-will  on  God's  part. 
Religion,  in  his  new-found  experience,  was  not  an 
obedient  conformity  to  a  great  corporate  system  of 
life  and  worship,  but  a  new  and  personal  relation 
to  God,  which  took  as  one's  own  all  that  Christ 
offered,  and  from  which  the  Christian  virtues  should 


222     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

naturally  flow.  God  gives  everything.  Man  trust- 
fully receives.  This  conception  was  not  absolutely 
new.  It  had  been  apprehended,  none  too  clearly  to 
be  sure,  by  many  of  the  most  spiritual-minded  men 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  But  they  had  not  drawn  its  full 
consequences.  They  had  combined  it,  as  Augustine 
did,  with  inconsistent  ecclesiastical  theories.  As 
Luther  now  apprehended  it,  it  was  a  complete  breach 
with  current  official  interpretations  of  the  gospel. 
It  was  essentially  a  revival  of  the  largely  forgotten 
PauHne  conception  of  the  way  of  salvation.  It  was 
to  be  the  mainspring  of  all  Luther's  later  work. 
Salvation  was  to  him  henceforth  not  something  pain- 
fully to  be  won;  it  was  a  present,  certain  experience, 
based  on  an  undoubting  acceptance  of  the  promises 
of  the  gospel.  In  a  word,  it  was  a  new  life  of  union 
with  God  through  Christ.  He  who  has  this  new  life 
must  be  "  saved. "^ 

This  fresh,  Pauline,  religious  conception  of  the 
way  of  salvation  placed  Luther  far  in  advance,  not 
merely  of  mediaeval  reformers  like  Wichf  and  Huss, 
but  of  the  great  men  of  the  ancient  church.  But 
Luther  was  naturally  a  conservative,  and  it  was  long 
after  his  apprehension  of  justification  by  faith  alone 
before  he  realized  its  full  consequences  or  broke  with 
the  mediaeval  hierarchical  system.  In  1507  he  was 
made  a  priest;   1508  saw  his  transfer  to  Wittenberg, 

I  In  this  and  other  paragraphs  of  this  sketch  I  have  taken 
some  sentences  from  my  The  Reformation. 


MARTIN  LUTHER  223 

thenceforth  to  be  his  home,  and  the  beginning  of  an 
influential  professorship  in  the  little,  recently  founded 
and  weak  university  there  situated.  He  rose  to 
prominence  in  the  Augustinian  order,  was  sent  to 
Rome  on  its  business  in  151 1,  and  became  superin- 
tendent of  a  group  of  its  monasteries  in  1 5 1 5.  Mean- 
while, he  attained  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Theology 
in  15 1 2,  his  expositions  of  the  Bible  in  the  classroom 
soon  began  to  attract  attention,  and  his  own  thinking, 
under  the  influence  of  Augustine  and  of  the  German 
mystics,  by  15 16  had  broken  with  the  Aristotelian 
explanations  of  theology  which  had  been  character- 
istic of  scholasticism.  He  was  winning  great  popular 
approval  as  a  preacher. 

Convinced  as  he  was  that  salvation  is  based  on 
a  new  personal  relation  with  God,  Luther  could  not 
but  view  with  disapproval  the  coming  of  Johann 
Tetzel,  in  1517,  as  a  seller  of  papal  indulgences,  the 
proceeds  of  which  were  to  rebuild  St.  Peter's  in  Rome. 
It  was  the  offer  of  a  stone  to  those  who  needed  bread. 
Accordingly,  in  strict  academic  custom,  he  posted  on 
the  door  of  the  castle  church  in  Wittenberg,  which 
served  the  university  as  a  bulletin  board,  ninety-five 
"Theses"  proposing  a  discussion  of  the  value  of 
indulgences.  The  event  occurred  on  October  31, 
1517,  the  eve  of  "All  Saints,"  when  the  church  was 
to  be  crowded  with  pilgrims.  In  themselves,  the 
theses  were  very  moderate ;  but  they  held  that  peni- 
tence is  not  an  act  done  once  for  all,  but  a  lifelong 


224    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

State  of  the  soul ;  that  the  real  treasury  of  the  church 
is  not  one  of  good  works,  but  the  gospel  of  God's 
grace ;  and  that  every  Christian  who  feels  true  com- 
punction for  his  sins  has  full  remission  of  punishment 
and  guilt.  In  the  existing  state  of  heated  opposition 
to  the  financial  exactions  of  the  Roman  court  the 
theses  attracted  immediate  attention  throughout  Ger- 
many. Their  effect  was  far  greater  than  Luther 
could  have  anticipated.  He  had  spoken  in  opposition 
to  the  system,  and  was  at  once  a  marked  man.  Its 
effect  on  the  sale  of  indulgences  was  immediate.  Of 
course  Tetzel  repHed  at  once,  but  more  powerful 
defenders  of  indulgences  appeared,  chief  of  whom 
was  the  brilliant  Johann  Maier  of  Eck,  and  a  Roman 
Dominican,  "Master  of  the  Sacred  Palace,"  Prierias, 
who  affirmed  the  infaUibihty  of  the  pope,  in  whom 
he  declared  the  church  to  be  virtually  embodied,  and 
declared  that  whatever  the  Roman  church  does  is 
right.  Luther  had  wished  no  quarrel  with  the 
papacy;  but  he  now,  in  1 518,  took  up  the  battle  with 
Prierias,  asserting  the  infaUibihty  of  the  Word  of 
God,  and  denying  that  the  pope  is  virtually  the 
church.  The  struggle  was  assuming  vastly  larger 
dimensions.  It  was  changing  from  a  question  of  the 
misuse  of  indulgences  to  that  of  the  power  of  the 
papacy,  and  of  the  hierarchical  system  of  which  the 
papacy  was  the  crown, 

A  summons  to  Rome  for  trial  reached  Luther  in 
August,  15 18,  and  he  would  undoubtedly  have  had  to 


MARTIN  LUTHER  225 

go  to  his  death,  had  he  not  been  protected  by  the 
favor  of  Elector  Friedrich  of  Saxony,  his  sovereign, 
who,  though  in  sHght  sympathy  with  Luther's  re- 
ligious position,  was  proud  of  his  reputation  and  work 
in  the  University  of  Wittenberg.  Friedrich  was  of 
political  importance  for  Pope  Leo  X.  The  matter 
was  compromised.  Luther  appeared  before  the 
pope's  representative.  Cardinal  Cajetan,  at  Augsburg 
in  October,  15 18;  but  was  ordered  to  submit.  In- 
stead, he  issued  an  appeal  to  a  general  council, 
though  without  real  hope  that  the  appeal  would  be 
heard,  and  in  expectation  of  speedy  death.  His 
courage  never  shone  out  more  conspicuously.  But 
politics  still  counseled  the  pope  to  compromise,  and 
Luther  finally  agreed,  in  January,  15 19,  to  submit 
the  questions  to  a  German  bishop,  and  pending  the 
decision  to  remain  silent,  provided  his  opponents 
would  refrain  from  controversy.  This  was  impos- 
sible, and  on  July  4,  15 19,  Luther  found  himself  face 
to  face  with  Eck  in  a  momentous  discussion  at 
Leipzig.  In  his  studies  preparatory  to  this  debate 
Luther  had  made  a  great  advance  in  the  clear  appre- 
hension of  the  consequences  of  his  earlier  positions. 
He  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  supremacy 
of  the  papacy  was  not  merely  unnecessary,  but  was 
based  on  many  false  pretenses  and  of  comparatively 
recent  origin.  He  had  also  made  up  his  mind  that 
the  seat  of  ecclesiastical  power  is  the  church,  not  its 
officers,  and  that  the  church  is  the  whole  number  of 


226     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Christian  believers,  not  the  hierarchy.  With  these 
convictions  Luther  entered  the  discussion.  Eck 
was  a  most  skilful  debater,  and  soon  showed  that 
many  of  Luther's  positions  were  those  of  Huss,  who 
had  been  condemned  by  the  Council  of  Constance. 
It  was  a  moment  of  decision  for  Luther.  He  had 
doubted  the  authority  of  the  papacy,  but  to  deny  the 
infalhbihty  of  a  general  council  was  to  break  with  all 
mediaeval  orthodoxy.  It  was  to  break  with  the 
whole  hierarchical  system.  It  left  the  sole  ultimate 
authority  the  Scriptures;  and  that  the  Scriptures 
interpreted  by  private  judgment,  since  it  was  in 
rehance  on  his  own  judgment  that  Luther  decided 
that  a  general  coimcil  had  erred.  Yet  he  did  not 
shrink  from  the  step.  His  breach  with  the  mediaeval 
system  was  now  complete. 

Luther's  bold  stand  won  him  the  hearty  support 
of  all  in  Germany  who  looked  in  any  way  with  dis- 
favor on  the  papacy.  By  many  he  was  regarded  as 
a  national  hero ;  and  he  now  began  to  look  upon  his 
own  work  as  a  national  struggle  for  freedom  from  the 
papacy  and  all  that  the  papal  system  represented. 
Eck  hastened  to  Rome  to  secure  Luther's  condemna- 
tion as  a  heretic.  In  anticipation  of  its  coming  and 
effect  Luther  now  issued  two  powerful  revolutionary 
treatises  of  the  highest  importance.  In  August,  1 5  20, 
he  put  forth  in  German  his  appeal  To  the  Christian 
Nobles  of  the  German  Nation.  He  called  upon  the 
rulers  to  redress  the  grievances  from  which  Germajiy 


MARTIN  LUTHER  227 

had  long  suffered  and  to  take  the  renovation  of  the 
church  into  their  own  hands.  The  spiritual  claims 
of  a  special  priesthood  to  stand  between  the  layman 
and  God  are  worthless.  God  is  approachable  by 
all  without  priestly  intervention — a  doctrine  which 
swept  away  the  superstitious  fear  of  priestly  power 
which  gave  its  chief  strength  to  the  hierarchy  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  "All  Christians  are  truly  of  the  spir- 
itual estate,  and  there  is  no  difference  among  them 
save  of  office  alone."  The  pope  has  no  monopoly  in 
the  interpretation  of  Scripture  or  of  the  summoning 
of  general  councils.  All  honest  occupations  have  on 
them  the  divine  blessing,  and  the  religious  life  may  be 
Hved  in  them  as  truly  as  in  monasticism.  A  German 
national  church  should  be  guided  by  a  primate  of 
Germany;  ministers  should  be  chosen  by  the  com- 
munities they  serve;  priestly  celibacy  should  no 
longer  be  required ;  monasticism  should  be  restricted, 
and  the  proper  care  of  the  poor  be  secured. 

Two  months  later,  Luther  issued  an  appeal  to  the 
learned  in  Latin — ^his  Babylonish  Captivity.  That 
bondage  he  finds  in  the  mediaeval  conception  of  the 
sacraments.  Their  number  has  been  exaggerated, 
their  efficacy  made  magical.  Baptism  and  the  Sup- 
per— which  is  no  sacrifice  offered  by  the  priest  to 
God — are  witnesses  to  and  attestations  of  the  divine 
promise  of  forgiveness.  Hence  their  value  is  re- 
ceived by  faith  only.  They  evidence  to  us  the  truth 
of  God's  promises. 


228     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Yet  such  was  Luther's  inward  calmness  of  spirit, 
that  even  in  these  stormy  weeks  he  could  write  a 
third  great  tract,  pubHshed  in  November,  1520 — 
his  Christian  Liberty.  It  is  an  untroubled  exposi- 
tion of  his  faith,  as  illustrated  in  the  great  paradox 
of  Christian  experience:  "A  Christian  man  is  the 
most  free  lord  of  all  and  subject  to  none;  a  Christian 
man  is  the  most  dutiful  servant  of  all  and  subject  to 
everyone."  He  is  free  because  justified  by  faith  and 
united  with  Christ;  he  is  a  servant  through  love, 
because  he  must  bring  his  body  into  subjection  to 
his  regenerated  spirit  and  aid  his  fellow-men.  "A 
Christian  man  does  not  Hve  in  himself,  but  in  Christ 
and  in  his  neighbor,  or  else  is  no  Christian;  in 
Christ  by  faith,  in  his  neighbor  by  love." 

The  papal  bull  ordering  Luther  to  make  his  peace 
within  sixty  days  or  suffer  the  penalties  of  a  heretic 
was  now  in  Germany,  and  Luther  answered  it 
by  a  dramatic  act.  On  December  10,  at  Witten- 
berg, with  the  consenting  presence  of  his  colleagues, 
fellow-townsmen,  and  students,  he  burned  it,  with 
copies  of  the  papal  decretals  and  canon  law.  Such 
an  act  evidently  put  a  section  of  Saxony  into  rebeUion 
against  the  existing  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  Ger- 
many, and  could  not  fail  to  come  to  the  cognizance 
of  the  Reichstag.  Accordingly,  after  long  discussion, 
a  command  and  safe-conduct  from  the  Emperor, 
Charles  V,  ordered  him  to  appear  before  it  in  Worms 
to  declare  in  what  measure  he  still  maintained  the 


MARTIN  LUTHER  229 

positions  advanced  in  his  books.  On  April  17  and 
18,  152 1,  he  appeared  before  that  august  parliament. 
It  is  well-nigh  impossible  for  one  of  this  age  to  con- 
ceive the  courage  which  such  a  task  demanded. 
Could  he,  a  peasant's  son,  maintain  his  independence 
in  the  face  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  rulers  of 
his  nation?  Was  he  sure  enough  of  himself  to 
afhrm  that  his  own  conscientious  conviction  of  the 
truth  of  God  was  more  to  be  relied  on  than  the 
declarations  of  the  great  representative  gatherings  of 
Christendom  which  men  generally  beHeved  to  have 
been  spoken  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  He 
was  unshaken  in  his  cause.  Before  the  assembly  he 
refused  to  recant,  and  declared  that  he  could  not  do 
so  unless  refuted  by  scriptural  testimonies  or  clear 
arguments.  It  was  the  most  heroic  moment  of  his 
courageous  life. 

On  May  26  Charles  V  signed  the  Edict  of  Worms 
declaring  Luther  an  outlaw  to  be  seized  for  punish- 
ment; but  fortunately,  Friedrich  still  favored  him, 
and  for  his  protection  had  Luther  seized  as  he 
journeyed  homeward  and  hidden  in  the  castle 
known  as  the  Wartburg,  near  Eisenach.  In  this 
safe  retreat  he  lived  for  eleven  months,  a  period 
distinguished  for  his  translations  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment into  German.  As  has  already  been  pointed 
out'  this  was  far  from  the  first  German  transla- 
tion; but  it  was  fresh,  idiomatic,  and  readable.     Its 

I  AfUe,  p.  219. 


230     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

effect  on  the  popular  religious  life  was  almost  im- 
measurable. 

Thus  far  Luther  had  been  steadily  growing  as  a 
national  leader  supported  by  most  various  classes 
;  of  Germany.  To  these  years  belong  his  best  work, 
his  new,  deeply  rehgious  appreciation  of  the  way  of 
salvation;  his  free  trust  in  the  universal  priesthood 
of  believers,  his  fresh  and  suggestive  examination  and 
valuation  of  Scripture  in  proportion  as  it  taught 
clearly  or  imperfectly  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith.  But  from  his  return  from  the  Wartburg  to 
Wittenberg,  in  March,  1522,  without  any  alteration 
in  his  doctrine  of  salvation,  his  position  changed  grad- 
ually, by  force  of  circumstances,  to  that  of  a  party 
leader.  The  vision  of  a  universally  purified  church, 
or  even  of  a  united  Germany,  slowly  faded,  because 
it  proved  impossible  of  reahzation,  and  to  some 
extent  because  of  his  own  conservative  fears.  That 
return  was  compelled  by  disorders  in  Wittenberg, 
which  he  mastered,  but  which  led  to  the  separation  of 
his  more  radical  followers.  Worse  by  far  was  the 
divisive  effect  of  the  great  peasant  revolt  of  1524 
and  1525.  In  it  he  took  the  side  of  the  nobiHty  who 
crushed  it  in  blood.  Probably  in  no  other  way 
could  he  have  kept  their  important  favor  for  his 
cause,  and  he  was  thoroughly  honest  in  his  attitude. 
But  the  results  were  most  unfortunate.  Much  of 
Germany  charged  the  revolt  to  his  teaching,  and 
swung  back  toward  the  older  church;   and  he  him- 


MARTIN  LUTHER  231 

self  came  to  distrust  the  common  man  and  to  feel 
that  all  effective  reform  must  be  the  work  of  the 
princes.  The  same  years  also  witnessed  his  dispute 
with  Erasmus,  and  the  separation  of  many  of  the 
scholars  from  his  movement.  In  1529  came  his 
doctrinal  rupture  with  Zwingli  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Swiss  reformation  at  the  Marburg  Colloquy. 

Of  the  steps  by  which  the  Lutheran  movement 
became  the  Lutheran  churches  our  space  will  not 
allow  us  to  speak  at  length.  The  year  1526  saw  the 
beginnings  of  the  organization  of  territorial  churches 
by  the  rulers  of  evangehcal  sympathies.  Three 
years  later  the  protest  of  these  leaders  against  reac- 
tionary Roman  CathoHc  poHcies  in  the  Reichstag  of 
Speyer  fixed  the  name  "Protestant"  permanently  on 
the  party.  In  1530,  they  presented  their  creed  to  the 
Emperor  and  Reichstag  at  Augsburg — the  Augsburg 
Confession.  Then  followed  a  quarter  of  a  century 
of  political,  and  at  times  mihtary,  contest,  a  period 
marked  by  the  rapid  territorial  expansion  of  the 
Protestant  movement,  till  by  the  Peace  of  Augsburg, 
in  1555,  the  Lutherans  were  recognized  as  reHgious 
bodies  having  equal  rights  with  the  Roman  CathoUcs 
of  the  Empire. 

In  the  spiritual  battles  of  this  contest  Luther  bore 
his  full  part,  assisted  by  his  friend  the  noble-minded 
Philip  Melanchthon,  till  his  death  at  Eisleben,  the 
place  of  his  birth,  on  February  18,  1546.  The  work 
far  outgrew  the  power  of  any  one  man  to  direct  it; 


232     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

but  as  long  as  he  lived  he  was  the  foremost  figure  in 
his  native  land,  and  no  son  of  Germany  has  been  so 
honored  in  memory  as  he. 

Luther's  work  brought  Protestantism  into  being. 
It  had  many  aspects;  but  a  few  of  its  more  signifi- 
cant rehgious  results  may  be  enumerated.  Fore- 
most of  all  it  placed  in  men's  minds  the  conception 
of  the  Christian  Hfe  as  a  new  personal  relationship 
between  the  soul  and  God  through  Christ.  Not 
membership  in  a  great  corporation  and  obedience  to 
its  laws,  not  even  nourishment  by  its  sacraments — 
though  Luther  greatly  valued  the  sacraments  as 
witnesses  to  God's  promises — are  the  important 
things.  The  one  essential  is  a  new  and  vital  rela- 
tionship to  God.  Hence  saintly  intercession  or 
priestly  intermediaries  are  all  needless.  God  gives 
his  gifts  and  himself  directly  to  the  wiUing  soul.  A 
second  great  result  was  the  fruit  of  the  principles 
just  described.  Luther  taught  the  universal  priest- 
hood of  Christians.  The  clergy  are  a  ministry  who 
serve  by  preaching,  by  guidance,  by  leadership  in  the 
sacraments;  they  are  not  a  priesthood  divinely  em- 
powered with  authority  no  layman  possesses.  In 
case  of  need  any  Christian  can  be  chosen  by  his 
fellows  their  minister.  This  view  swept  away  the 
claims  of  the  whole  mediaeval  hierarchy,  either  as 
dispensers  of  divine  grace  or  as  exclusive  interpreters 
of  the  Word  of  God.  A  third  feature  of  his  work,  of 
equal  significance,  was  Luther's  insistence  that  the 
ordinary  natural  relations  of  family  and  society  afford 


MARTIN  LUTHER  233 

the  highest  opportunities  for  Christian  living.  Not 
in  celibacy,  or  monastic  separation  from  the  world, 
but  in  its  duties  and  normal  relations,  is  Christian 
service  to  be  sought.  To  this  vastly  important  doc- 
trine Luther  gave  the  sanction  of  his  own  example 
by  his  marriage,  on  June  13,  1525,  to  an  ex-nun, 
Catherine  von  Bora;  and  in  his  family  life  some  of 
the  most  attractive  traits  of  his  character  appeared. 
Less  important,  probably,  but  of  much  significance, 
were  Luther's  insistence  that  worship  should  be  in 
language  understood  by  the  people,  his  exaltation 
of  the  exposition  of  the  Word  of  God  as  its  central 
feature,  and  his  vindication  for  laymen  of  a  share  in 
the  government  of  the  church.  When  every  allow- 
ance possible  has  been  made  for  the  tendencies  of  the 
age  which  he  embodied,  and  which  might  conceiva- 
bly have  found  other  leaders,  he  still  remains  one  of 
the  few  men  of  whom  it  may  be  said  that  the  history 
of  the  church  has  been  profoundly  modified  for  all 
subsequent  time  to  the  present  by  his  life  and  work. 
Protestantism  is  his  monument  and  his  permanent 
debtor. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  tendencies  were  at  work  in  popular  thought  on 
the  eve  of  the  Reformation  ? 

2.  What  criticisms  of  papal  abuses  were  rife? 

3.  Were  there  evidences  of  reformatory  zeal  and  deepen- 
ing religious  feeling  ? 

4.  Speak  of  Luther's  parentage,  birth,  and  rank  in  life. 
What  were  the  circumstances  of  his  education  ?  Why  did  he 
enter  a  monastery  ? 


234     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

5.  How  did  Luther  seek  spiritual  peace?  What  did  he 
mean  by  "justification  by  faith  alone"?  Value  to  him  of 
this  experience  ? 

6.  Did  Luther  immediately  become  a  reformer  ?  What  was 
his  history  from  1507  to  1517?    Where  was  he  a  professor? 

7.  How  and  why  did  he  protest  against  the  abuse  of  indul- 
gences? The  efifect  of  this  protest?  How  did  the  scope 
of  the  controversy  enlarge  through  Prierias'  attack? 

8.  What  was  the  importance  for  Luther's  development  of 
his  discussion  with  Eck  at  Leipzig  ?  To  what  clearer  views 
did  it  bring  him  ? 

9.  What  were  his  great  controversial  tracts  of  1520? 
What  was  their  argument  ? 

10.  What  was  his  tract  on  Christian  Liberty  7 

11.  How  did  Luther  treat  the  pope's  bull  of  condemnation  ? 
Consequences  of  the  action?  His  appearance  before  the 
Reichstag  of  Worms  ?     Its  significance  ? 

12.  What  action  was  taken  by  the  emperor  against  Luther  ? 
How  did  he  escape  its  consequences?  How  did  he  employ 
his  sojourn  in  the  Wartburg  ? 

13.  What  change  of  position  was  forced  on  Luther  by  the 
development  of  the  Reformation  after  his  return  from  the 
Wartburg  ?     His  death  ? 

14.  What  were  the  main  results  of  Luther's  work?  His 
significance  in  Christian  history  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 
Philip  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (New  York, 

1888),  VI,  94-744- 
Henry  E.  Jacobs,  Martin  Luther  (New  York,  1898). 
Williston  Walker,  The  Reformation  (New  York,  1900),  pp. 

71-146,  181-224. 
Thomas  M.  Lindsay,  A  History  of  the  Reformation  (New  York, 

1906),  Vol.  I. 


JOHN  CALVIN 


XIII 

JOHN  CALVIN 

Contemporary  with  much  of  Luther's  work, 
though  later  in  its  initiation,  an  independent  and 
more  radical  reformatory  movement  ran  its  course 
in  Switzerland.  Its  leader  was  Ulrich  Zwingli.  Bom 
in  Wildhaus,  on  January  i,  1484,  a  few  weeks  later 
than  Luther,  Zwingh  obtained  an  excellent  educa- 
tion in  the  "new  learning,"  and  was  in  hearty  sym- 
pathy with  the  humanistic  feeling  that  men  should 
go  back  of  the  interpretations  of  the  Middle  Ages  to 
the  grand  sources  of  Christian  truth,  the  Scriptures. 
It  was  this  impulse,  rather  than  a  profound  reUgious 
experience  such  as  Luther  enjoyed,  that  made  him  a 
reformer.  His  first  pastorate  in  Glarus,  from  1506 
to  15 16,  was  followed  by  more  than  two  years  in 
Einsiedeln.  In  December,  15 18,  he  was  called  to 
Zurich,  and  there  his  real  reformatory  work  began. 
By  1522  he  had  rejected  the  Lenten  fast  as  without 
scriptural  support.  The  same  year  he  married.  In 
1523  he  defended  in  public  debate  the  sole  authority 
of  Scripture,  and  the  immediate  headship  of  Christ 
over  the  church.  With  the  support  of  the  Ziirich 
magistrates  the  pictures,  crucifixes,  and  images  were 
removed  from  the  churches  in  1524,  and  in  1525 
the  communion  was  substituted  for  the  mass. 
237 


238     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Church  services  were  reduced  to  a  Puritan  simpHcity. 
Luther,  conservative  by  nature,  held  that  all  was 
allowable  in  worship  which  the  Word  of  God  did  not 
expressly  condemn,  thus  retaining  many  of  the  older 
usages  and  adornments.  The  radical  Zwingli  felt 
that  nothing  should  be  retained  for  which  express 
warrant  could  not  be  found  in  the  Bible.  Hence 
Swiss  worship  was  from  the  first  of  an  unadorned 
and  severely  intellectual  character.  This  heritage 
was  to  pass  to  the  reformed  churches  of  France, 
Holland,  and  Scotland,  and  to  the  Puritans  of  Eng- 
land and  America. 

ZwingH's  comparative  radicalism  appeared  also  in 
his  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  His  rejection  of 
any  form  of  the  physical  presence  of  Christ  led  to  a 
bitter  controversy  with  Luther,  and  the  permanent 
separation  of  the  Swiss  and  German  reform  move- 
ments at  the  Marburg  Colloquy  in  October,  1529. 

The  reform  movement  spread  rapidly  in  German- 
speaking  Switzerland.  The  great  canton  of  Bern 
was  won  for  it  in  1528,  and  that  of  Basel  in  1529. 
Appenzell,  St.  Gall,  and  Schaffhausen  joined  the 
movement.  The  Zwinglian  type  of  reformation 
found  support  also  outside  of  Switzerland  in  the 
important  German  city  of  Strassburg,  where  Martin 
Bucer  (1491-1551),  surpassed  in  influence  throughout 
Germany  only  by  Luther  and  Melanchthon,  was 
disposed  to  sympathize  with  Zwingh  rather  than  with 
Luther.     Controversy  between  the   Protestant   and 


JOHN  CALVIN  239 

Catholic  cantons  in  Switzerland  led,  however,  on 
October  11,  1531,  to  a  battle  at  Cappel  between 
Zurich  and  its  Roman  neighbors  in  which  Zwingh 
lost  hie  Hfe.  His  work  was  not  lost,  for  it  came 
under  the  wise  and  patient  leadership  at  Zurich  of 
Heinrich  BuUinger  (1504-75);  and  the  Swiss  move- 
ment as  a  whole  was  soon  to  be  remodeled  and  given 
a  world-wide  significance  by  the  reformer  of  French 
Switzerland,  John  Calvin. 

The  beginnings  of  the  reform  movement  in  France, 
from  which  land  Calvin  was  to  come,  were,  like  those 
of  Switzerland,  closely  connected  with  the  revival 
of  learning.  A  group  of  scholars,  of  whom  Jacques 
Le  Fevre  (?-i536)  was  the  leader  in  Paris  and  its 
vicinity,  were  actively  following  the  humanistic  path 
of  study  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  opposition  to  super- 
stitions and  abuses.  These  men  were  seeking  a 
warmer  rehgious  Hfe,  without  thought  of  breaking 
with  the  Roman  church,  before  the  fame  of  Luther's 
struggle  had  spread  abroad.  Their  work  affected 
many  in  high  position,  though  it  seems  not  to  have 
touched  the  common  people,  and,  indeed,  the  popu- 
lation of  France  as  a  whole  had  Httle  of  that  hostiHty 
toward  the  papacy,  that  was  widespread  among  the 
masses  in  Germany.  It  was  in  this  humanistic,  semi- 
reformatory  atmosphere  that  Calvin's  rehgious  Hfe 
was  to  have  its  first  awakening. 

John  Calvin  was  bom  in  Noyon,  a  Httle  city  about 
fifty-eight  miles  north  of  Paris,  on  July  10,  1509. 


240     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

He  therefore  belonged  to  the  second  generation  of 
the  Reformers.  His  father  was  a  self-made  man, 
who  had  risen  to  influence  in  the  legal  and  admin- 
istrative service  of  the  bishop  and  chapter  of  Noyon, 
a  man  eagerly  ambitious  for  his  sons  and  anxious  to 
give  them  all  the  advantages  in  his  power.  Among 
the  boy's  friends  were  the  sons  of  the  noble  family 
of  Hangest,  and  this  acquaintance  doubtless  gave 
to  him  a  famiharity  with  the  ways  of  pohte  society 
such  as  few  of  the  Reformers  enjoyed.  After  re- 
ceiving such  education  as  Noyon  permitted,  Calvin 
was  sent,  in  1523,  when  fourteen,  to  the  University 
of  Paris,  where  he  pursued  the  undergraduate  course 
till  its  completion,  probably  in  1528,  and  not  merely 
became  master  of  a  brilliant  Latin  style,  but  gained 
much  skill  in  logical  argument.  The  expenses  of 
these  student  days  were  paid  by  ecclesiastical  ap- 
pointments in  and  near  Noyon,  though  Calvin  never 
received  ordination  either  as  a  Catholic  or  a  Protes- 
tant. 

Calvin's  father  had  originally  intended  him  for  a 
clerical  career,  but  had  now  quarreled  over  business 
matters  with  the  chapter  of  the  Noyon  Cathedral 
whose  agent  he  was.  At  his  father's  insistence  he 
now  turned  to  the  study  of  law,  in  the  universities  of 
Orleans  and  Bourges.  Here  he  also  engaged  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  Latin  classics  and  began  his  acquaint- 
ance with  Greek.  The  long  hours  of  labor  to  which 
he  forced  himself  gave  him  a  brilUant  reputation  as  a 


JOHN  CALVIN  241 

Student,  but  permanently  undermined  his  health, 
leaving  him  subject  thenceforth  to  severe  attacks  of 
nervous  dyspepsia.  Throughout  his  student  days, 
however,  he  made  many  warm  friendships  and  was 
evidently  much  beloved  by  such  of  his  companions 
as  shared  his  intimacy. 

The  death  of  his  father  in  1531,  when  his  course 
as  a  lawyer  was  practically  completed,  left  Calvin 
free  to  carry  out  his  own  wishes.  He  therefore  took 
up  residence  once  more  in  Paris  as  a  student  of  the 
classics,  with  the  purpose  of  pursuing  the  scholar's 
career.  The  fruit  of  these  studies  was  his  first  book, 
his  Commentary  on  Seneca^  s  Treatise  on  Clemency, 
pubHshed  in  1532.  It  is  a  marvel  of  classical  learn- 
ing, the  more  remarkable  that  its  author  was  not 
yet  twenty-three.  It  reveals  a  high  sense  of  moral 
values,  but  it  shows,  equally,  that  rehgious  consider- 
ations had  not  yet  the  first  place  in  his  regard.  He 
was  still  primarily  interested  in  questions  of  scholar- 
ship. The  year  following  the  printing  of  this  book 
was  spent  by  Calvin  in  further  study  of  law  in  Or- 
leans, but  in  the  autumn  of  1533  he  was  once  more 
in  Paris,  and  in  hearty  sympathy  with  his  friend 
Nicolas  Cop,  whose  strongly  Protestant  address, 
delivered  as  rector  of  the  university  on  November  i, 
put  that  institution  in  turmoil.  It  has  been  alleged 
that  Calvin  wrote  the  address.  Of  this  there  is  no 
sufficient  proof;  but  that  it  voiced  sentiments  with 
which  he  was  in  essential  agreement  there  can  be  no 


242     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

doubt,  and  contemporary  letters  show  that  religion 
was  now  uppermost  in  his  thoughts.  A  great  change 
had  come  to  him  since  he  wrote  his  Seneca — a  change 
which  he  himself  called  his  "conversion."  Unfortu- 
nately the  circumstances  and  the  date  of  this  spiritual 
transformation  are  exceedingly  obscure.  It  probably 
took  place  late  in  1532  or  early  in  1533;  and  it  is 
evident  that  it  involved  not  merely  spiritual  enhght- 
enment,  and  a  recognition  of  the  supreme  authority 
of  the  Scriptures,  but  a  conscious  submission  of 
his  will  to  that  of  God.  In  obedience  to  God's 
will  he  must  give  up  the  career  of  scholarly  quiet 
that  was  opening  so  brilhantly,  and  court  poverty 
and  danger.  This  central  experience  made  the  di- 
vine sovereignty  always  prominent  in  Calvin's  re- 
ligious thought.  As  Luther's  consciousness  of  rehef 
from  the  sense  of  guilt  placed  justification  by  faith 
alone  in  the  forefront  of  his  convictions,  so  Calvin's 
obedience  to  God's  guidance,  as  he  conceived  it, 
made  the  divine  rulership  a  cornerstone  of  his  later 
theology. 

The  commotion  caused  by  Cop's  address  com- 
pelled Calvin  to  fly  from  Paris,  and  he  now  spent 
some  months  in  wandering  and  concealment.  In 
May,  1534,  he  was  in  Noyon,  where  he  resigned  his 
ecclesiastical  benefices  from  which  he  had  thus  far 
drawn  revenue,  and  was  briefly  imprisoned  in  con- 
nection with  a  tumult  in  one  of  the  churches.  Part 
of  this  time  of  retirement  was  spent  at  Angouleme 


JOHN  CALVIN  243 

as  the  guest  of  his  friend,  Louis  du  Tillet;  and  in 
his  hospitable  home  Calvin  seems  to  have  carried  on 
the  studies  which  were,  a  Httle  later,  to  result  in  the 
Institutes.  The  outbreak  of  severe  persecution  in 
the  autumn  of  1534,  however,  compelled  Calvin  and 
du  Tillet  to  seek  refuge  in  the  Protestant  city  of  Basel 
in  northern  Switzerland. 

The  most  significant  incident  of  Calvin's  residence 
in  Basel  was  the  pubHcation,  in  March,  1536,  of  the 
first  edition  of  his  Institutes — a  work  which  he  had 
substantially  completed  in  the  preceding  August, 
when  he  was  Httle  more  than  twenty-six  years  of  age. 
It  is  the  clearest,  most  logical,  and  most  readable 
exposition  of  Protestant  doctrine  that  the  Reforma- 
tion age  produced,  and  it  gave  its  youthful  author 
at  once  a  European  fame.  Calvin  labored  on  its 
elaboration  nearly  all  his  active  Hfe.  It  may  be 
said  to  have  attained  doctrinal  completeness  in  the 
second  edition  (1539),  and  perfection  of  presentation 
in  its  final  and  much  enlarged  form  issued  twenty 
years  later;  but  its  interpretation  of  Christian  truth 
was  always  essentially  the  same.  To  this  masterful 
treatise  Calvin  prefaced  a  remarkable  letter  to  Fran- 
cis I  of  France,  defending  the  Protestants  of  that 
land  from  the  criticisms  of  their  enemies,  and  vindi- 
cating their  rights  to  a  respectful  hearing.  No  man 
had  yet  spoken  so  effectively  in  their  behalf,  and  with 
this  letter  Calvin  took  a  position  of  assured  leader- 
ship in  the  party  whose  cause  he  pleaded. 


244    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

A  brief  visit  to  Ferrara  in  Italy  followed  the  pub- 
lication of  the  Institutes.  Calvin  then  returned  to 
Paris  to  secure  his  brother  and  sister  and  settle  his 
business  affairs,  prehminary  to  intended  removal  to 
Protestant  Strassburg.  War  compelled  a  detour  by 
Geneva.  He  reached  there  late  in  July,  1536,  in- 
tending to  spend  a  single  night;  but  was  met  by 
the  entreaties  and  admonitions  of  his  friend,  Guil- 
laume  Farel,  to  remain  and  engage  with  him  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Reformation  in  the  city.  To 
Calvin  it  seemed  a  call  of  God,  and  he  now  began 
his  Genevan  work. 

No  city  could  have  seemed  less  promising  than 
Geneva  to  one  who,  like  Calvin,  believed  that  the 
prime  duty  of  minister  and  magistrate  alike  was  the 
cultivation  of  strict,  conscientious.  Christian  charac- 
ter. Pressed  upon  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  with 
whom  its  bishop  was  in  sympathy,  its  liberty-loving 
citizens  had  rejected  Savoyard  influence  and  driven 
out  the  bishop.  Farel  had  labored  there  since  1532. 
The  mass  had  been  suspended  in  1535,  and  in  May, 
1536,  two  months  before  Calvin's  coming,  the  citi- 
zens by  formal  vote  had  placed  themselves  on  the 
Protestant  side.  Yet  their  Protestantism  was  chiefly 
political  hostility  to  the  bishop,  not  doctrinal  con- 
viction. The  town  was  notoriously  pleasure-loving, 
and  its  religious  institutions  were  all  in  confusion. 
It  was  a  most  difficult  task  to  which  Calvin  was  thus 
suddenly  invited  by  Farel. 


JOHN  CALVIN  245 

Calvin  began  his  work  with  vigor.  He  would 
have  each  inhabitant  assent  to  a  Protestant  creed, 
the  young  instructed  in  a  catechism,  all  watched 
over  as  to  moral  conduct,  the  church  free  to  act  to 
the  point  of  excommunication,  and  the  government 
then  to  deal  with  incorrigible  offenders.  It  was  the 
most  strenuous  programme  of  moral  discipline  that 
Protestantism  had  yet  presented,  and  it,  of  course, 
aroused  opposition.  The  point  of  attack  was  the 
partial  freedom  from  governmental  control  which 
Calvin,  unlike  the  German  and  Swiss  reformers  be- 
fore him,  demanded  for  the  church.  On  this  issus 
Calvin  and  Farel  were  defeated,  and  were  banished 
from  the  city  in  April,  1538.  His  work  seemed  a 
failure. 

The  next  three  years  were  spent  by  Calvin  in 
Strassburg  and  were  in  many  ways  the  happiest  of  his 
life.  He  was  pastor  of  the  church  of  French  refugees 
and  was  free  to  carry  out  his  disciplinary  measures; 
he  was  a  successful  teacher  of  theology;  he  was 
honored  by  the  city,  and  was  made  its  representative 
in  important  religious  conferences  in  Germany.  Here 
he  married,  in  August,  1540,  the  wife  who  was  to  be 
his  helpful  companion  till  her  death  in  March,  1549- 
His  Strassburg  career  did  much  for  him.  It  enlarged 
his  experience  and  ripened  his  thought  in  every  way. 

Meanwhile  a  revolution  had  occurred  in  Geneva, 
his  friends  were  once  more  in  power,  and  his  return 
was  eagerly  sought.     In  September,  1541,  with  great 


246     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

reluctance,  he  once  more  took  up  the  Geneva  bur- 
den, practically  on  his  own  terms.  The  ecclesiasti- 
cal constitution  of  the  city  now  established  was  not 
indeed  quite  what  he  desired,  but  it  put  into  effective 
operation  his  leading  ideas.  Its  most  important 
feature  was  the  Consistory ^  made  up  of  the  ministers 
of  the  city  and  of  twelve  laymen,  to  whom  the  moral 
oversight  of  Geneva  was  referred.  It  could  proceed 
in  discipline  as  far  as  excommunication.  If  that 
failed  to  effect  amendment,  the  power  of  the  civil 
government  was  called  in.  Naturally,  in  practice, 
this  ecclesiastical  supervision  aroused  great  opposi- 
tion, not  only  from  those  to  whom  any  discipline  was 
irksome,  but  from  more  worthy  representatives  of 
old  Genevan  families  to  whom  Calvin  and  his  asso- 
ciates seemed  foreign  intruders  who  had  imposed 
their  yoke  on  the  city.  His  stay  was  a  constant 
contest,  and  Calvin  was  many  times  on  the  brink  of 
banishment.  But  he  fought  his  way  courageously, 
and  the  influx  of  exiles  for  their  faith,  chiefly  from 
France,  whom  Calvin  attracted  to  Geneva,  con- 
stantly increased  his  following.  At  the  very  crisis 
of  the  struggle,  in  1553,  the  brilliant  but  erratic 
Michel  Servetus,  the  critic  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  came  to  the  city,  and  his  condemnation 
became  a  trial  of  strength  between  Calvin  and  his 
enemies.  Though  Calvin  wished  for  Servetus  an 
easier  death  than  that  at  the  stake,  which  was  in- 
flicted on  October  27,  1553,  he  had  long  determined 


JOHN  CALVIN  247 

to  crush  that  ill-balanced  thinker;  and  the  incident  is 
one  which  shows  Calvin  in  his  least  attractive  light. 
A  riot  in  1555,  however,  gave  Calvin's  friends  in 
Geneva  the  upper  hand;  and  his  position  was  made 
permanently  secure  by  the  admission  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  refugees  to  citizenship.  Thenceforward, 
to  his  death,  he  had  no  serious  opposition  in  Geneva. 
Calvin  now  crowned  his  Genevan  edifice  by  the 
"  Academy"  in  1559.  This  famous  school,  which  was 
for  a  century  the  most  distinguished  seat  of  educa- 
tion under  the  control  of  the  Reformed  churches, 
became  at  once  a  training  institution  for  the  Protes- 
tant ministry  of  France,  and  its  influence  was  pro- 
foundly felt  in  the  Netherlands,  England,  Scotland, 
and  Germany.  For  Calvin,  Geneva  was  never  an 
end  in  itself.  He  would  make  it  a  city  of  refuge  for 
persecuted  Protestants,  an  example  of  a  strictly  dis- 
ciplined Christian  community,  and  a  center  for  min- 
isterial training  whence  men  should  go  forth  to 
advance  the  Reformation  cause.  In  all  this  he  suc- 
ceeded. And,  besides  this  constant  labor  in  Geneva, 
Calvin  exercised  a  real,  though  unofficial,  superin- 
tendence over  all  non- German  and  non- Anglican 
Protestantism.  Before  his  death,  great  reform  move- 
ments bearing  his  impress  had  begun,  and  in  some 
instances  had  far  advanced,  in  France,  the  Nether- 
lands, Scotland,  Poland,  Hungary,  and  even  in  the 
Rhine  Valley  section  of  Germany.  They  reproduced 
his  theology  and  his  conceptions  of  the  well- disci- 


248    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

plined  Christian  life.  He  trained  many  of  their 
leaders,  and  maintained  an  enormous  and  far-reach- 
ing correspondence.  To  Calvin  was  due  the  essen- 
tial spiritual  likeness  that  came  to  exist  among  the 
scattered  family  of  non-Lutheran  Protestantism;  and 
the  territorial  growth  of  Calvinism  had  but  begun 
at  his  death.  His  system  was  destined  powerfully 
to  mold  English  thought  through  the  Puritans,  and 
American  religious  development  through   the   Pil- 

.  grim  and  Puritan,  the  Scotch-Irish,  the  Dutch,  the 
Huguenot,  and  the  German-Reformed  elements  in 

,  our  national  life. 

I  With  all  this  multiplicity  of  tasks  Calvin's  pen  was 
always  busy.  His  commentaries,  which  cover  the 
greater  part  of  the  Bible,  are  the  best  that  the  Refor- 
mation age  produced.  His  Institutes  were  constantly 
improved.  His  minor  treatises  discussed  the  most 
important  questions  of  the  day.  He  was  unremitting 
in  attention  to  preaching  and  to  theological  lectures. 
This  activity  was  the  more  remarkable  because  his 
health  was  always  precarious,  and  in  the  latter  years 
of  his  life  he  was  constantly  an  invalid.  He  died, 
worn  out  by  his  burdens  and  disabihties,  when  not 
yet  fifty-five  years  of  age,  in  Geneva,  on  May  27, 
1564. 

Calvin's  theology  was  essentially  Augustinian,  with- 
out the  ecclesiasticism  with  which  the  great  African 
thinker  combined  his  doctrine  of  grace.  God  is  all 
powerful  in  creation  and  providence.     In  him  is  the 


JOHN  CALVIN  249 

sole  source  of  all  good,  wherever  manifested.  The 
object  of  all  worthy  laws,  as  well  as  of  right  indi- 
vidual action,  is  conformity  to  the  will  of  God. 
Man's  chief  duty  and  enjoyment  is  to  know  him 
and  what  he  requires  and  offers.  This  knowledge  is 
adequately  imparted  only  by  the  Scriptures,  which 
approve  themselves  as  the  very  Word  of  God  by  the 
inward  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart  of 
the  beheving  reader.  No  other  authority  than  this 
Word  is  of  value. 

Man  was  created  upright,  but  by  Adam's  fall  has 
become  wholly  bad.  He  is  of  himself  utterly  in- 
capable of  any  good  act,  and  his  salvation  is  totally 
the  work  of  God.  Its  basis  is  what  Christ  has 
wrought  for  men,  but  to  be  available  that  must 
become  man's  personal  possession.  Christ  must 
become  ours.  We  must  enter  into  vital  union  with 
him.  This  union  is  conditioned  on  faith;  but  this 
faith  is  itself  the  gift  of  God,  and  comes  by  "the 
secret  efficacy  of  the  Spirit."  Grace  therefore  flows 
not  through  the  sacraments  alone,  but  by  the  divine 
Spirit  who  works  when  and  where  and  how  he  will. 
As  with  Luther,  the  sacraments  are  seals  attesting 
God's  promises. 

The  consequence  of  faith  is  the  Christian  life. 
To  Calvin,  far  more  than  to  Luther,  this  life  is  one 
of  strenuous  endeavor.  Though  no  longer  judged 
by  the  law  of  God,  the  Christian  sees  in  it  the  pattern 
to  which  his  life  should  conform.     "  We  are  justified 


250     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

not  without,  and  yet  not  by  works."  No  man  can 
be  really  a  Christian  without  aspiring  to  hoHness  of 
life.  This  insistence  is  one  of  the  prime  features  of 
Calvinism.  It  made  character  a  main  test  of  all 
true  religious  life. 

Since  all  grace  is  from  God,  and  man  deserves 
nothing  of  himself,  the  salvation  or  loss  of  any  indi- 
vidual must  depend  on  the  divine  purpose.  Calvin 
advanced  beyond  Augustine  in  holding  that  no  one 
in  whom  God  had  really  begun  a  work  of  grace  could 
fail  to  be  saved.  From  this  doctrine  of  election 
therefore  he  drew  great  encouragement. 

In  his  theory  of  the  church,  Calvin  held  that,  in 
the  last  analysis,  it  is  the  invisible  company  of  the 
elect;  but  as  known  to  us  it  is  the  body  of  those  who 
profess  the  Christian  faith.  It  is  properly  governed 
only  by  officers  of  divine  appointment — the  pastors, 
teachers,  elders,  and  deacons  of  the  New  Testament, 
who  are  called  to  their  duties  inwardly  by  God,  and 
outwardly  by  the  consent  of  those  they  serve.  Calvin 
thus  recognized  a  true  share  of  the  people  in  the 
choice  of  their  church  officers. 

Calvinism  has  proved  of  great  service  to  civil 
liberty,  rather  as  a  consequence  of  Calvin's  prin- 
ciples than  of  a  deliberate  purpose  on  his  part.  His 
doctrine  that  when  God's  commands  are  clear  no 
contrary  human  enactment  deserves  any  obedience, 
tended  to  develop  independent  judgment  as  to  the 
righteousness  of  any  statute  of  man's  making;  while 


JOHN  CALVIN  251 

his  principle  that  church  officers  receive  their  places 
with  the  consent  of  those  they  serve,  led  men  to  re- 
gard them  as  responsible  to  their  congregations — a 
feeling  easily  carried  to  civil  governorships  and  other 
places  of  poHtical  rule.  The  debt  of  America  to 
his  work,  religiously  and  politically,  is  well-nigh  im- 
measurable. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Give  some  account  of  the  life  and  work  of  Zwingli. 
How  did  he  resemble  and  how  did  he  differ  from  Luther  ? 

2.  What  influences  favored  the  beginning  of  the  reform 
movement  in  France  ? 

3.  Describe  Calvin's  parentage,  early  life,  and  education. 

4.  In  what  studies  did  Calvin  gain  distinction  ? 

5.  What  was  the  nature  of  Calvin's  conversion?  What 
experience  in  it  affected  his  theology  ? 

6.  How  did  Calvin  come  to  leave  France  ? 

7.  When  were  the  Institutes  published,  and  what  was  their 
significance  ? 

8.  What  was  the  condition  of  Geneva  and  how  came 
Calvin  to  setde  there  ?    Why  was  it  a  hard  field  ? 

9.  What  did  Calvin  attempt  in  his  first  stay  in  Geneva? 
How  did  it  end  ? 

10.  What  was  the  value  to  Calvin  of  his  residence  in  Strass- 
burg? 

11.  How  came  Calvin  to  return  to  Geneva?  The  Con- 
sistory 1  The  sources  of  opposition?  His  success  in  the 
struggle  ? 

12.  What  did  Calvin  aim  to  make  of  Geneva?  How 
far  did  he  succeed  ? 

13.  What  were  the  results  of  Calvin's  work  outside  of 
Geneva  ? 


252     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

14.  Calvin's  varied  activities  ?     His  death  ? 

15.  Speak  of  some  features  of  Calvin's  theology. 

16.  What  was  his  service  to  civil  liberty  ?     Why  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

Philip  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (New  York, 

1892),  VII,  1-844- 
John  F.  Hurst,  History  of  the  Christian  Church  (Cincinnati, 

1897),  II,  223-304. 
Williston  Walker,  John  Calvin  (New  York,  1906). 


JOHN  KNOX 


XIV 
JOHN  KNOX 

Calvin's  most  eminent  spiritual  disciple  was  un- 
doubtedly John  Knox,  if  the  permanency  and  widely 
extended  character  of  his  work  are  the  criteria  of 
estimate.  He  had  little  of  the  originality  of  Luther, 
Zwingli,  or  Calvin;  but  though  principally  indebted 
for  his  theology  and  his  form  of  church  organization 
to  the  Genevan  reformer,  Knox  possessed  so  impres- 
sive an  individuality  and  such  personal  force,  and 
fought  so  peculiar  and  successful  a  battle,  that  he 
had  high  independent  significance  among  the  leaders 
of  the  Reformation  age.  His  is  not  only  the  greatest 
figure  in  Scottish  history,  but  the  history  of  the 
Reformation  in  Scotland  is  largely  the  story  of  Knox's 
life. 

Scotland  before  the  Reformation  was  an  unde- 
veloped land.^  Its  business  and  its  culture  were 
alike  backward,  it  was  torn  by  internal  controversies 
in  which  the  nobles  and  the  great  churchmen  bore 
full  share.  Its  monarchy  was  weak.  Its  church, 
though  wealthy  enough  to  possess  half  the  land  of  the 
kingdom,  was  notoriously  corrupt.  In  its  political 
relations,  Scotland  was  harassed  by  well-grounded 
fears  of  English  aggression,  which  inclined  the  little 

I  In  this  sketch  the  writer  has  made  considerable  use  of  what 
he  has  already  said  in  his  volume  The  Reformation. 

255 


256     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

kingdom  to  look  for  aid  to  France.  The  Reforma- 
tion movement  was  far  advanced  on  the  Continent 
before  it  was  felt  in  Scotland.  The  first  Scottish 
Protestant  martyr,  Patrick  Hamilton,  was  burned 
under  Archbishop  James  Beaton  at  St.  Andrews  in 
1528,  and  this  policy  of  repression  was  even  more 
severely  carried  out  under  James  Beaton's  nephew 
and  successor,  Cardinal  David  Beaton;  but  Protes- 
tantism grew  very  slowly  till  it  found  a  leader  in 
Knox. 

John  Knox  was  born  probably  in  the  Giffordgate 
district  of  Haddington,  thirteen  miles  east  of  Edin- 
burgh, on  some  unknown  day  probably  of  the  year 
1513.^  His  father,  William  Kjiox,  was  in  humble 
circumstances,  but  the  boy  had  the  advantage  of  a 
good  school  in  Haddington,  and  entered  a  univer- 
sity, probably  that  of  St.  Andrews,  where  he  came 
under  the  influence  of  the  leading  scholastic  theolo- 
gian of  Scotland,  John  Major  ( 1469-15 50).  While 
thoroughly  Roman  in  doctrine.  Major  criticized  the 
papal  administration,  wished  to  limit  the  number 
of  monks,  and  held  that  civil  authority  is  derived 
from  the  people,  who  can  depose  and  even  execute 
unjust  rulers.     In  the  opinion  last  described  he  was 

I  The  traditional  year  of  Knox's  birth  is  1505;  but  the  evi- 
dence for  1 5 13  seems  stronger.  Besides  the  claim  of  Gififordgate 
as  the  scene  of  his  birth,  that  event  has  been  assigned  to  Gifford 
and  to  Morham^  each  village  about  four  miles  from  Haddington. 
The  subject  is  well  discussed  by  Professor  Henry  Cowan,  John 
Knox  (New  York,  1905),  pp.  22-29,  45-48- 


JOHN  KNOX  257 

to  have  an  energetic  disciple  in  Knox.  By  1540 
Knox  had  been  ordained  to  the  priesthood.  He  also 
acted  as  notary,  and  served  as  a  tutor,  by  1544  hav- 
ing under  his  care  several  young  sons  of  Lothian 
famihes  of  position. 

It  was  apparently  in  1543  that  Knox's  spiritual 
awakening,  or  at  least  his  conversion  to  Protestant- 
ism, took  place  under  the  preaching  of  a  former 
monk,  Thomas  William  of  Athelstaneford,  the  par- 
ticular passage  of  Scripture  that  first  impressed  him 
being  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John's  Gospel.  A 
few  months  later  he  came  under  the  influence  of 
George  Wishart  (1513-46),  a  powerful  Protestant 
preacher  for  whom  he  conceived  a  great  affection. 
Knox  narrowly  escaped  sharing  Wishart's  arrest, 
and  was  profoundly  moved  by  that  vigorous  mis- 
sionary's death  by  fire  at  St.  Andrew's  on  March 
I,  1546.  Wishart  had  represented  not  merely  Prot- 
estantism but  English  interests.  His  opponents 
had  sided  with  France  and  the  papacy.  As  a 
.result  of  this  partly  religious,  partly  political, 
contention.  Cardinal  Beaton  was  murdered  by  some 
of  Wishart's  supporters,  on  May  29,  1546.  Knox 
had  no  part  in  the  deed;  but,  once  done,  he  fully 
approved  of  it;  and  when,  some  time  after,  the  con- 
spirators and  their  friends  took  possession  of  the 
Castle  of  St.  Andrews  for  safety,  he  joined  them,  in 
April,  1547.  Here  he  was  chosen  minister  of  the 
little  company,  and  entered  on  his  office  with  a  fiery 


258    .GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

sermon  against  the  papacy  and  all  its  works.  Here, 
first  of  any  in  Scotland,  he  publicly  administered  the 
Lord's  Supper  in  Protestant  fashion.  English  help 
did  not  come  to  the  beleaguered  garrison;  but  the 
French  party  procured  aid  from  France.  The 
castle  was  captured;  and  from  September,  1547, 
to  February  or  March,  1549,  Knox  suffered  the  fate 
of  a  galley-slave,  chained  to  the  rowing-bench 
of  a  French  war-vessel.  Even  under  these  circum- 
stances, and  the  added  distress  of  severe  illness,  his 
courage  did  not  desert  him;  and  he  confidently 
trusted,  and  made  others  believe,  that  he  would  yet 
preach  in  his  native  land. 

Knox's  release  through  an  exchange  of  prisoners 
was  followed  by  a  pastorate  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Protestant  government  which  ruled  England  in 
the  name  of  Edward  VI,  at  Berwick  on  the  Tweed. 
His  success  there  was  great,  and  resulted  in  his 
promotion  to  Newcastle,  his  appointment  as  one  of 
the  English  royal  chaplains,  and  finally  the  offer  of 
the  bishopric  of  Rochester.  That  important  dignity 
he  refused,  not  so  much  by  reason  of  any  opposition 
to  the  episcopal  office,  as  from  dislike  of  the  revenues 
and  state  of  the  English  prelates,  and  his  own  patri- 
otic determination  to  renew  his  work  in  Scotland  as 
soon  as  opportunity  might  offer.  Though  in  his 
judgment,  as  in  that  of  the  Reformers  generally,  all 
ministers  were  spiritually  equal,  he  objected  no  more 
than  Calvin  or  Melanchthon  to  the  retention  of  purely 


JOHN  KNOX  259 

administrative  supervision  by  a  "bishop"  over  the 
ministers  of  a  district. 

The  death  of  Edward  VI  in  1553  was  followed  in 
England  by  the  Roman  reaction  under  Queen  Mary. 
Knox  saw  that  further  work  in  England  was  impos- 
sible for  the  present,  and  after  waiting  quite  as  long 
as  safety  permitted,  he,  like  many  of  his  fellow- 
Protestants,  fled  to  the  Continent  early  in  1554.  He 
made  his  way  promptly  to  Geneva,  where  he  was 
heartily  welcomed  by  Calvin,  with  whom  he  was 
already  in  spiritual  sympathy.  His  stay  at  this  time 
in  Geneva  was  short,  however.  In  September,  1554, 
a  call  came  to  him  to  become  the  pastor  of  the  Eng- 
lish exiles  in  the  German  city  of  Frankfort.  Thither 
he  went  at  Calvin's  insistence;  but  his  pastorate 
proved  one  of  his  most  stormy  experiences.  The 
refugees  there  gathered  had  all  fled  from  England  in 
fear  for  their  lives;  but  even  a  common  misery 
could  not  prevent  the  outbreaking  among  them  of 
what  was  soon  to  be  the  great  Puritan  controversy  of 
Queen  Elizabeth's  reign.  Some  wished  to  use  the 
Prayer-Book  as  it  had  been  established  in  England  in 
the  reign  of  the  late  Edward  VI;  others,  of  whom 
Knox  was  one,  thought  that  it  preserved  too  many 
vestiges  of  Romanism  and  favored  a  simpler  service. 
Knox  found  his  position  untenable,  and  in  March, 
1555,  was  back  in  the  friendly  shelter  of  Geneva. 

Meanwhile  the  situation  in  Scotland  had  improved 
from  Knox's  point  of  view.     Mary  of  Guise,  the 


26o     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

French  mother  of  the  youthful  Mary  "Queen  of 
Scots,"  though  a  devoted  CathoHc,  had  coquetted 
with  nobles  of  Protestant  leanings  to  obtain  the 
regency  in  1554.  The  return  of  England  under  Mary 
to  the  Roman  obedience  favored  the  growth  of 
Protestantism  in  Scotland  by  reason  of  the  dispo- 
sition then  characteristic  of  the  hard-pressed  little 
country  to  follow  a  policy  opposite  to  that  which 
England  pursued.  Under  such  circumstances  Knox 
judged  the  time  opportune,  and,  in  September,  1555, 
was  once  more  in  Scotland.  Here  he  preached 
widely  and  with  effect;  but  his  success  was  even 
greater  in  organizing  a  definitely  Protestant  party. 
He  persuaded  the  leading  Protestant  sympathizers 
to  cease  attending  mass.  He  entered  into  relations 
with  three  youthful  nobles  who  were  to  be  leaders 
in  the  Protestant  cause — Lord  Erskine,  afterward 
Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  James  Stuart,  afterward  Earl  of 
Moray,  both  to  be  regents  of  Scotland,  and  Lord 
Lome,  afterward  Earl  of  Argyle.  He  defied  the 
bishops.  But  Knox  evidently  judged  the  time  not 
fully  ripe  for  successful  overthrow  of  the  old  church. 
The  Genevan  English-speaking  congregation  urged 
him  to  return,  and  in  September,  1556,  he  was  back 
in  the  Swiss  city. 

Here  in  Geneva  Knox  made  his  headquarters 
till  January,  1559.  He  was  pastor  of  the  English 
congregation.  He  was  on  affectionate  terms  with 
Calvin,    whom   he   intensely   admired.     He   spoke 


JOHN  KNOX  261 

French  fluently,  and  his  Genevan  stay  was  inter- 
rupted with  courageous  missionary  work  in  Dieppe 
in  France  and  by  visits  to  other  French  cities  in  aid 
of  the  Evangelical  cause.  At  Geneva  he  published, 
in  1558,  what  proved  ia,ler  a  source  of  great  annoy- 
ance to  himself,  his  First  Blast  of  the  Trumpet  against 
the  Monstrous  Regiment  of  Women.  Moved  by  the 
opposition  of  Mary  Tudor  in  England,  of  Catherine 
de'  Medici  in  France,  and  of  the  regent,  Mary  of 
Guise,  in  Scotland,  to  the  Protestant  cause,  Knox 
argued  that  no  woman  could  rightfully  exercise 
sovereignty.  He  did  not  foresee  that  England  would 
soon  have  a  Protestant  queen — and  Queen  Elizabeth 
never  forgave  him. 

While  Knox  was  thus  busied,  the  Protestant  cause 
was  gaining  in  Scotland.  On  December  3,  1557, 
its  leaders  drafted  at  Edinburgh  the  first  Scottish 
"Covenant,"  agreeing  "to  maintain,  set  forward,  and 
establish  the  most  blessed  Word  of  God  and  His 
congregation,"  from  which  they  soon  obtained  the 
nickname  of  the  "  Lords  of  the  Congregation."  The 
political  situation  soon  strongly  favored  their  cause. 
Fear  of  overbearing  French  influence  was  increased 
when  the  long  betrothal  of  Mary,  "  Queen  of  Scots," 
ended  in  her  marriage  in  April,  1558,  to  the  heir  to 
the  French  throne  who,  in  July  of  the  next  year, 
was  to  become  Francis  II  of  France.  In  November, 
1558,  Elizabeth  became  Queen  of  England.  By  the 
Roman  party  she  was  held  to  be  illegitimate,  as  the 


262     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn,  whose  marriage  to  Henry 
VIII  that  party  had  never  recognized.  If  she  had 
no  right  to  the  English  throne,  then  Mary  "  Queen 
of  Scots  "  was  queen  of  England.  Mary  asserted  her 
claim.  Elizabeth  in  self-defense  could  do  no  less 
than  countenance  the  Protestant  party  in  Scotland, 
and  many  not  Protestants  trembled  at  the  thought 
of  the  union  of  France,  England,  and  Scotland  under 
the  joint  sovereignty  of  Francis  and  Mary.  So  it 
was  that  Knox,  from  his  post  of  observation  in 
Geneva,  deemed  the  time  for  battle  to  have  come  at 
last,  and  on  May  2,  1559,  arrived  in  Edinburgh. 
Intense,  religious,  argumentative,  democratic,  fear- 
less, intolerant,  forceful,  Knox  was  just  the  man  for 
leadership  in  the  crisis  he  had  so  laboriously  pre- 
pared. It  was  not  a  religious  struggle  only.  To  a 
large  degree  it  was  a  great  national  conflict  against 
foreign  dominance  in  which  he  fought. 

At  Perth  Knox  heard  that  the  regent,  Mary  of 
Guise,  had  declared  him  an  outlaw.  He  replied 
with  a  vehement  denunciation  of  the  mass.  The 
mob  rose.  The  images  in  the  churches  were  de- 
stroyed and  the  monasteries  were  sacked.  Both 
sides  raised  what  troops  they  could.  Scotland  was 
in  civil  war.  Similar  scenes  of  violent  abolition 
took  place  at  St.  Andrew's  and  elsewhere,  and  the 
nobles  hastened  to  put  themselves  in  possession  of 
the  church  lands.  The  regent  was  drawing  her  sup- 
port from  France,  and  Knox  now  negotiated  success- 


JOHN  KNOX  263 

fully  for  pecuniary  assistance  for  his  cause  from 
England.  On  his  advice,  the  "  Lords  of  the  Congre- 
gation," in  October,  1559,  suspended  Mary  of  Guise 
from  the  regency  so  far  as  they  could,  and  the  battle 
was  practically  decided  for  the  Protestant  cause, 
when,  in  January,  1560,  an  English  fleet,  sent  by 
Elizabeth,  came  to  its  assistance,  and  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  an  English  army.  The  two  rival  forces 
struggled  ineffectively  for  a  time,  but,  in  June,  1560, 
the  regent  died,  and  within  a  month  the  French  and 
English  forces  were  withdrawn  by  treaty.  In  the 
absence  of  the  queen,  Mary,  in  France,  it  was  agreed 
that  the  government  of  Scotland  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  a  council  of  Scotchmen.  It  was  a  great 
victory  for  self-government  in  Scotland,  against 
French  interference,  as  well  as  for  the  right  of  the 
land  to  determine  its  rehgious  affairs,  and  the  chief 
agent  in  the  result  had  been  Knox  himself. 

In  August  the  Scottish  Parliament  met,  under  rad- 
ical Protestant  control.  In  form  it  was  not  strictly 
legal,  for  it  lacked  the  consent  of  the  queen,  but  it 
was  fairly  representative  of  the  nation.  Its  action 
was  drastic.  Romanism  was  abolished.  Death  was 
threatened  for  a  third  conviction  of  celebrating  the 
mass.  A  Confession  of  Faith,  drafted  by  Knox  and 
five  ministerial  associates,  and  Calvinistic  in  doctrine, 
was  adopted.  The  ancient  Roman  edifice  was  utterly 
overthrown. 

This  radical  action  made  necessary  the  complete 


264     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

reorganization  of  the  Scottish  church.  Knox  and 
his  ministerial  associates  had  been  laboring  on  a 
constitution  before  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  and  it 
was  now  completed  after  the  adjournment  of  that 
body.  It  is  known  as  the  First  Book  of  Disciplined 
The  essential  features  of  the  system  of  church  gov- 
ernment therein  outlined  were  derived  from  Cal- 
vin, and  are  of  the  type  known  as  Presbyterian.  In 
each  local  congregation  was  a  minister,  elders,  and 
deacons,  all  chosen  by  the  people  they  served,  the 
minister  permanently  with  the  approval  of  other 
ministers  of  the  region,  and  the  elders  and  deacons 
by  the  congregation  for  terms  of  one  year.  To  the 
deacons  the  care  of  the  temporalities  and  the  relief 
of  the  poor  was  intrusted.  The  elders  with  the  min- 
ister, the  "session"  of  Presbyterian  usage,  were  the 
disciplinary  council.  Neighboring  ministers  and 
elders  met  weekly  for  Bible-study — an  assembly,  that 
after  Knox's  death  became  the  "Presbytery."  The 
ministers  and  elders  of  a  district  met  as  a  superior 
court  in  the  "Synod;"  and  chosen  ministers  and  lay 
representatives  convened  as  a  supreme  ecclesiastical 
court  for  all  Scotland  once  a  year  in  the  "  General 
Assembly,"  the  first  session  of  which  gathered  in 
December,  1560.  In  two  features  Knox  departed 
from  the  Genevan  system.  He  would  have  "  super- 
intendents" in  administrative  supervision  over  the 

I  That  prepared  largely  by  Andrew  Melville,  and  approved  by 
the  General  Assembly  in  1578,  is  the  "Second." 


JOHN  KNOX  265 

ministers  of  given  districts;  and  owing  to  the  scarcity 
of  suitable  ministers,  he  provided  for  "readers"  till 
the  want  could  be  supplied.  In  public  worship  Knox 
introduced  substantially  the  Genevan  service,  in  the 
form  in  which  it  had  been  used  in  his  congregation  in 
that  city.  This  made  the  sermon  central,  and  pro- 
vided opportunity  both  for  free  and  written  prayers. 
Could  Knox  have  done  as  he  wished,  the  income  of 
the  old  church  would  have  been  used  for  schools, 
church  expenses,  and  charity;  but  he  could  do  nothing 
with  the  greedy  nobles  who  seized  it  for  themselves. 
Owing  to  their  opposition  the  "  Book"  was  not  estab- 
lished by  law,  but  it  became  the  pattern  essentially 
in  accordance  with  which  the  Scottish  church  was 
organized. 

Knox's  battle  seemed  about  won  before  the  close 
of  1560.  He  himself  was  chosen  minister  in  Edin- 
burgh. But  a  hard  struggle  was  before  him  to  main- 
tain what  had  been  secured.  Mary  "Queen  of 
Scots"  became  a  widow  in  December,  1560,  and  re- 
turned to  Scotland  in  the  August  following,  deter- 
mined to  bring  back  the  country  to  Rome,  and  to 
secure  for  herself  the  succession  to  the  English 
throne.  Her  charm  and  shrewdness,  and  the  sym- 
pathy felt  for  her  bereavement,  won  her  many 
friends.  In  Knox  and  in  the  spirit  which  he  had 
fostered  she  met  her  chief  obstacles.  The  struggle 
was  waged  on  his  part  with  weapons  of  invective 
that  seemed  coarse  and  often  brutal,  but  the  contest 


266     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

was  none  the  less  one  for  popular  sovereignty  and  the 
right  of  the  majority  to  determine  its  form  of  religion. 
''What  are  you  in  this  commonwealth?"  asked 
Mary  of  Knox  in  1563.  "A  subject  born  within 
the  same,"  he  replied,  ''and  though  neither  earl,  lord, 
nor  baron,  God  has  made  me  a  profitable  member." 
He  criticized  her  Romanizing  policy  unsparingly, 
declaring  when  she  set  up  Roman  worship  in  her 
own  chapel  that  "one  mass  was  more  fearful  to  him 
than  ten  thousand  armed  enemies,"  and  boldly 
affirmed  to  her  face  that  subjects  may  rightfully 
depose  a  ruler  who  opposes  the  Word  of  God. 

Knox,  however,  could  hardly  have  succeeded  as 
he  did  in  the  struggle  had  it  not  been  for  Mary's 
misdeeds  and  misfortunes.  She  angered  public  sen- 
timent, in  1563,  by  proposing  a  marriage  with  Don 
Carlos,  son  of  Philip  II  of  Spain.  She  quarreled 
with  Darnley,  whom  she  married  in  1565.  She  made 
prominent  among  her  advisers  an  Italian  favorite, 
David  Rizzio,  who  was  murdered  in  March,  1566, 
by  a  conspiracy  of  disaffected  nobles,  in  which  the 
jealous  Darnley  himself  was  involved.  On  February 
10,  1567,  Darnley  was  himself  murdered — with 
what  connivance  on  Mary's  part  has  been  ever  since 
one  of  the  battlegrounds  of  historic  discussion.  On 
May  15,  following,  she  married  the  Earl  of  Both  well, 
who  had  had  a  share  in  Darnley's  death.  Public 
opinion  was  outraged.  On  June  15  Mary  was  taken 
captive  by  her  nobles  and  soon  forced  to  abdicate  in 


JOHN  KNOX  267 

favor  of  her  infant  son,  James  VI,  and  a  regency  to 
be  administered  by  the  Protestant  Earl  of  Moray. 
In  the  discussions  following  Mary's  capture,  Knox 
seems  to  have  contributed  the  decisive  influence  in 
favor  of  forcing  her  abdication.  The  Parliament 
which  followed,  in  December,  1567,  gave  full  legal 
establishment  to  the  enactments  of  1560,  and  the 
Scottish  church. 

Knox  hoped  that  his  work  was  done;  but  the  con- 
dition of  the  land  remained  a  cause  of  anxiety  to  him 
as  long  as  he  lived.  Mary  escaped  from  imprison- 
ment in  1568,  and  found  many  supporters.  Her 
defeat  was  followed  by  her  flight  to  England  and 
her  imprisonment  by  Elizabeth,  where  she  remained 
a  scheming  captive,  menacing  the  Protestantism  of 
both  lands,  till  her  execution  as  a  conspirator  against 
the  English  queen  in  1587. 

In  October,  1570,  Knox  suffered  a  paralytic 
stroke.  He  regained  partial  strength  and.  labored 
with  something  of  his  old  fire  till  shortly  before  his 
death.  On  November  24,  1572,  he  met  his  end,  in 
calm  assurance,  and  in  full  enjoyment  of  spiritual 
comfort.  To  some  extent  he  was  a  disappointed 
man  in  his  last  days.  He  saw  many  of  his  cherished 
plans  for  the  church  and  education  frustrated,  as  he 
believed,  by  the  greed  and  unspirituality  of  the 
nobles.  But  when  he  died  at  Edinburgh  it  was  in 
the  fulness  of  an  accomplished  work  of  vast  dimen- 
sions; and  no  more  fitting  characterization  was  ever 


268     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

spoken  of  him  than  the  often-quoted  words  of  Regent 
Morton  at  his  burial:  "Here  lieth  a  man  who  in  his 
life  never  feared  the  face  of  man." 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  was  the  condition  of  Scotland  before  the  Ref- 
ormation? Why  was  Scotland  closely  bound  politically  to 
France  ? 

2.  Who  was  the  first  Scotchman  to  die  for  Protestantism  ? 
Was  Protestantism  late  in  getting  a  foothold  in  Scotland  ? 

3.  What  were  Knox's  parentage,  birthplace,  and  education  ? 
What  influence  had  John  Major  on  him  ? 

4.  Under  what  influences  was  Knox  converted  to  Protes- 
tantism ?    What  were  his  relations  to  Wishart  ? 

5.  How  came  Knox  to  be  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Andrews  ? 
His  ministry  there?  How  signalized?  His  experience  as  a 
prisoner  ? 

6.  What  was  Knox's  work  in  England?  How  was  it 
regarded  ? 

7.  What  was  the  value  to  Knox  of  his  stay  in  Geneva? 
The  Frankfort  episode  ? 

8.  How  did  he  organize  the  Reformation  movement  in 
Scotland  in  1555-56  ? 

9.  What  office  did  Knox  fill  in  his  second  stay  in  Geneva  ? 
His  First  Blast? 

10.  What  political  conditions  facilitated  his  work  in  Scot- 
land in  1559  ?     Character  of  the  reform  movement  ? 

11.  The  work  of  the  Parliament  of  1560?  How  did 
Knox  organize  the  church  ? 

12.  What  were  Knox's  relations  to  Mary  "Queen  of 
Scots"?  How  was  she  injured  by  her  own  misdeeds  and 
mistakes  ? 

13.  Knox's  death  ?     His  character  and  work  ? 


JOHN  KNOX  269 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

Thomas  McCrie,  The  Life  of  John  Knox  (Edinburgh,  181 2, 

and  many  later  editions). 
Peter  H.  Brown,  John  Knox,  a  Biography  (London,  1895). 
Henry  Cowan,  John  Knox  (New  York,  1905). 


IGNATIUS  LOYOLA 


XV 
IGNATIUS  LOYOLA 

The  Reformation  age  witnessed  not  merely  the 
birth  of  Protestantism;  it  beheld  a  great  revival  of 
the  spiritual  life  in  the  Roman  Catholic  church  itself 
— a  movement  to  which  the  name  ^'  Counter- Refor- 
mation" has  often,  but  not  wholly  adequately,  been 
given.  To  a  large  extent  this  awakening  was  induced 
by  the  great  Protestant  revolt.  But  it  is  not  wholly 
traceable  to  that  upheaval.  Its  beginnings  had  been 
manifested  before  the  time  of  Luther;  and,  like  the 
Protestant  revival,  it  owed  much  to  the  quickening 
spirit  of  the  Renaissance.  Unlike  Protestantism,  this 
awakening  had  no  quarrel  with  mediaeval  doctrine. 
It  was  content  with  a  better-educated  and  more 
faithful  clergy,  the  abolition  of  the  grosser  abuses, 
and  a  warmer  spiritual  life. 

In  no  country  in  Europe'  was  this  Roman  revival 
so  conspicuously  in  evidence  as  in  Spain.  That 
land  was  rising  to  a  political  significance  heretofore 
unsuspected,  that  made  it  the  marvel  of  the  closing 
years  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  marriage  of 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  Isabella  of  Castile,  in  1469, 
ultimately  resulted  in  placing  the  larger  part  of  the 
Spanish  peninsula  under  their  efltective  rule.     Their 

I  In  this  sketch  the  writer  has  borrowed  some  sentences  from 
his  The  Reformation. 

273 


274    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

conquest  of  Granada,  in  1492,  ended  Moorish  sov- 
ereignty in  that  land;  and  the  same  year  witnessed 
the  discovery,  under  Spanish  auspices,  of  the  New 
World,  from  which  a  wealth  soon  flowed  to  the 
Spanish  treasury  such  as  no  mediaeval  king  had 
enjoyed.  Spain,  by  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  had  suddenly  become  well-nigh  the  most 
powerful  land  of  Europe;  and  this  political  growth 
had  been  accompanied  by  a  great  effort  for  the 
intellectual  and  moral  improvement  of  the  Spanish 
church  in  which  the  deeply  religious  queen,  Isabella, 
and  her  trusted  religious  adviser,  Ximenes,  had  been 
leaders.  The  Spanish  church  had  awakened,  before 
1500,  to  new  zeal.  Fanatically  tenacious  of  medi- 
aeval doctrine,  it  tolerated  no  change  in  its  theology, 
but  it  was  the  most  thoroughly  aroused  section  of 
Latin  Christendom.  Of  this  Spanish  awakening  the 
most  characteristic  and  influential  product  was  to  be 
Ignatius  Loyola,  the  founder  of  the  Company  of 
Jesus,  or,  as  its  members  are  generally  nicknamed, 
the  Jesuits. 

Inigo  Lopez  de  Recalde  was  born  of  the  noble 
Spanish  family  of  Loyola,  at  its  castle  in  the 
northern  province  of  Guipuzcoa,  in  149 1.  As  a 
boy,  he  was  trained  in  the  court  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  and  soon  developed  marked  talents  as  a 
soldier.  Of  unshakable  courage  and  a  born  leader 
of  men,  he,  though  the  youngest  officer  present,  de- 
cided the  slender  garrison  to  defend  Pamplona  against 


IGNATIUS  LOYOLA  275 

the  overwhelming  French  army,  in  15  21.  In  the 
storming  of  the  city  by  its  besiegers  he  showed  heroic 
firmness  in  defense,  but  he  fell  severely  wounded  by 
a  ball  which  shattered  his  leg.  Then  followed  long 
weeks  of  invalidism.  The  young  soldier  would  not 
readily  abandon  his  career,  and  the  ill-knit  bones 
were  repeatedly  broken  and  reset  in  the  vain  hope 
of  a  more  perfect  recovery.  He  had  at  last  to 
recognize  that  the  soldier's  pathway  was  closed  to 
him  forever. 

To  the  man  of  thirty  this  was  a  distressing  out- 
come; but  a  new  vision  had  come  to  him  in  his 
invalidism.  He  had  read  eagerly  such  books  as  he 
could  find — a  Life  of  Christ  and  sketches  of  the 
saints.  He  would  imitate  them  in  a  new  and  holier 
warfare  as  his  great  fellow-countryman.  Saint  Dom- 
inick,  had  done.  He  would  be  a  knight  of  the  Spirit, 
waging  warfare  with  the  powers  of  evil.  He  would 
serve  a  nobler  lady  than  any  earthly  princess — the 
Virgin  herself. 

As  soon  as  returning  strength  permitted,  Loyola 
put  his  new  resolutions  into  practice.  He  offered  his 
armor  at  the  shrine  of  the  Virgin  in  Montserrat,  and 
soon  began  a  life  of  self-mortification  in  the  Domini- 
can monastery  in  Manresa.  Here  he  fought  the 
battles  for  the  mastery  of  his  own  spirit  which  ever 
after  colored  his  religious  life.  He  fasted  and  prayed. 
He  painfully  recalled  his  sins,  till,  feeling  that  their 
remembrance  was  a  hindrance  to  his  spiritual  prog- 


276     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

ress,  he  resolved  to  thrust  even  their  recollection  be- 
hind him  and  to  recount  them  no  more,  not  even 
in  prayer.  He  believed  that  the  mysteries  of  the 
Trinity,  of  the  Incarnation,  and  of  the  creation  of 
the  world  were  revealed  to  him  in  vision;  but  he  re- 
jected equally  clear  spiritual  suggestions  as  of  satanic 
origin;  and  he  made  the  test  of  the  divine  or  devilish 
impulses  of  his  soul  their  comfort  and  help,  or  their 
disquieting  effects.  Here  he  conceived  his  Spiritual 
Exercises,  based  indeed  in  part  on  earlier  treatises  by 
Cisnero  of  Manresa  and  the  Netherlandish  mystics, 
Zerbolt  of  Ziitphen  and  Mauburnus  of  Zwolle,  but 
profoundly  original  in  their  treatment.  This  mar- 
velous work  is  a  drillbook  of  spiritual  self-mastery. 
Under  the  guidance  of  a  religious  master-at-arms, 
the  disciple  is  to  exercise  himself  for  four  weeks  in 
attempts  to  gain,  by  strenuous  effort  of  will,  a  vivid 
consciousness  of  man's  sinfulness,  and  of  the  life  and 
saving  work  of  Christ.  The  world  as  a  battleground 
between  his  Lord  and  the  powers  of  evil  is  to  be  made 
real  to  his  imagination;  and  the  great  facts  of  salva- 
tion are  to  become  part  of  his  mental  imagery.  Never 
was  there  a  more  remarkable  or  a  more  successful 
attempt  to  awaken,  control,  and  direct  mental  pic- 
tures. In  the  order  which  Ignatius  was  later  to 
establish  each  member  had  to  pass  through  the  dis- 
cipline thus  prescribed;  and  its  effects  on  most 
minds  must  have  been  an  unforgettable  quickening 
of  the  spiritual  imagination  by  which  what  is  usually 


IGNATIUS  LOYOLA  277 

fantasy  was  directed  into  definite  pictures  of  great 
Christian  verities.  Loyola  would  use  the  visions  of 
the  spirit  to  the  full;  yet  control  and  direct  them 
absolutely. 

This  period  of  spiritual  conflict  in  Manresa  was 
followed  by  a  determined  effort  to  engage  in  mis- 
sionary activity.  Loyola  made  his  way,  in  1523,  to 
Jerusalem.  But  the  Franciscans  in  authority  among 
the  Latin  Christians  there  looked  with  disfavor  on 
his  enterprise;  and,  finding  it  impossible  to  accom- 
plish his  purpose,  he  returned  to  Spain.  The  main 
result  of  this  courageous,  but  fruitless,  enterprise  was 
to  convince  Loyola  that  for  effective  work  he  must 
obtain  an  education.  He  now  began  with  the  very 
rudiments  of  Latin  in  a  boys'  class  in  Barcelona. 
Thence  he  went  for  further  study  at  Alcala  and  to 
Salamanca.  It  was  hard  work;  but  his  persever- 
ance was  inexhaustible.  Loyola  was  showing  him- 
self, as  always,  a  leader;  and  he  soon  gathered  a  little 
following,  which  he  drilled  in  his  Exercises.  This 
work  excited,  however,  the  suspicions  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical authorities,  and  he  narrowly  escaped  condem- 
nation as  an  alumbrado,  or  a  heretical  claimant  of 
special  divine  illumination.  Forbidden  to  speak  on 
religious  themes  for  four  years  by  the  investigators 
of  his  orthodoxy,  since  they  deemed  him  still  too 
ignorant,  he  left  Spain  for  Paris  in  1528,  and  there 
took  up  his  studies  in  the  College  Montaigu,  proba- 
bly just  as  John  Calvin  left  that  seat  of  learning.     In 


278     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

circumstances  of  great  poverty  he  pursued  his  work 
in  the  university.  The  years  of  his  stay  in  Paris  were 
a  period  of  pubHc  excitement  and  involved  much  of 
the  beginnings  of  the  Reformation  in  France;  but 
he  shared  in  no  conspicuous  event.  With  the  ut- 
most persistence,  on  the  contrary,  Loyola  strove  to 
gain  personal  influence  over  his  fellow-students,  and 
to  train  them  by  his  Exercises.  A  group  from  most 
various  social  ranks  soon  looked  to  him  as  its  leader. 
A  simple  Savoyard,  Pierre  Lefevre,  a  brilliant  noble- 
man of  Navarre,  Francisco  de  Xavier,  a  Spaniard 
of  great  learning  and  organizing  talent,  Diego  Lainez, 
Alonso  Salmeron,  likewise  a  fellow-countryman  of 
Loyola,  who  was  to  be  a  preacher  of  power,  Simon 
Rodriguez,  a  Portuguese,  and  still  another  Spaniard, 
Nicolo  Bobadilla,  with  two  or  three  others  consti- 
tuted the  little  companionship. 

With  the  friends  just  named  Loyola  entered  into 
vows  in  the  church  of  St.  Mary  on  Montmartre,  then 
just  outside  of  Paris,  on  August  15,  1534.  The 
student  associates  pledged  themselves  to  engage  in 
missionary  labors  and  the  care  of  the  ill  in  Jerusalem, 
or,  should  that  prove  impossible,  wherever  the  pope 
should  direct.  It  was  at  first  a  student  organization 
for  missionary  effort,  and,  as  such,  the  movement 
was  soon  carried  from  the  university  of  Paris  to  those 
of  Louvain  and  Cologne. 

Ill-health  compelled  Loyola  to  return  to  Spain  in 
1535,  but  in  1537  the  associates  gathered  in  Venice 


IGNATIUS  LOYOLA  279 

to  carry  out  their  purpose  of  going  to  Jerusalem.  War 
rendering  that  impossible,  they  began  preaching  in  the 
cities  of  Italy.  Loyola  now  determined  their  name. 
Italy  had  seen  many  military  companies  in  the  service 
of  worldly  princes;  his  should  be  the  Societas  Jesu, 
the  military  company  of  Jesus,  for  a  nobler  warfare, 
but  like  them  bound  together  by  soldierly  obedience. 
The  approval  of  the  pope  was  won  with  difficulty, 
but  in  September,  1540,  Paul  III  sanctioned  the 
association,  and,  the  next  year,  Loyola  was  chosen 
its  first  "general." 

In  Loyola's  view  few  were  fitted  for  membership 
in  the  society,  and  all  who  entered  it  must  undergo 
long  mental  and  spiritual  discipline.  As  in  an  army, 
each  must  cheerfully  and  promptly  make  his  supe- 
rior's will  his  own,  yielding  absolute  obedience  unless 
the  command  involved  sin.  Each  should  be  as- 
signed to  the  task  for  which  his  talents  and  education 
best  fitted  him.  That  the  members  should  be  free 
for  any  suitable  task,  they  were  burdened  with  no 
prescribed  dress  or  lengthy  religious  duties,  such  as 
marked  most  orders  of  monks.  No  religious  agency 
was  ever  more  ingeniously  devised.  It  gave  room 
for  the  exercise  of  the  most  varied  and  highly  trained 
talents.  It  appealed  to  two  of  the  strongest  motives 
that  men  can  feel — labor  for  others  and  for  self- 
development  in  the  service  of  God ;  but  it  conditioned 
their  answer  to  this  appeal  on  a  self-surrender  and  an 
obedience  that,  while  leaving  room  for  a  high  degree 


28o    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

of  individuality,  abdicates  the  highest  exercises  of  the 
individual  judgment  and  will. 

Under  Loyola's  generalship,  which  lasted  till  his 
death  in  Rome  on  July  31,  1556,  the  society  that  he 
founded  developed  a  most  manifold  activity,  and  its 
growth  and  efficiency  but  increased  under  his  imme- 
diate successors,  his  early  disciple,  Diego  Lainez 
(1557-65),  and  Francisco  Borgia  (1565-72).  It  has 
borne  ever  since  its  foundation  the  impress  of  his 
masterful  mind.  To  use  Loyola's  favorite  Pauline 
quotation,  he  would  have  it  made  "all  things  to  all 
men."  From  Italy  its  preachers  were  soon  reaching 
out  to  all  the  countries  of  Europe.  By  Loyola's 
death  it  counted  more  than  a  thousand  members, 
settled  in  a  hundred  places.  Under  Xavier,  ap- 
pointed to  the  task  by  Loyola  himself,  a  great  mis- 
sionary campaign  was  begun  in  India  in  1542,  that 
before  Xavier's  death,  ten  years  later,  had  carried  the 
gospel  by  his  means,  all  too  superficially  it  is  true,  to 
Malacca  and  Japan.  He  was  but  the  forerunner  of 
a  great  company  of  Jesuit  missionaries,  who  were  to 
labor  in  India,  China,  and  Japan,  and  in  North  and 
South  America.  Their  story,  if  not  always  one  of 
wisdom  or  of  effective  method,  is  one  in  many 
instances  of  intrepid  heroism,  that  shines  on  the 
pages  of  missionary  consecration ;  and  in  its  work  for 
missions  the  most  winsome  aspect  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus  is  to  be  found. 

It  was,  however,  as  an  opponent  of  Protestantism 


IGNATIUS  LOYOLA  281 

and  as  a  molding  force  in  the  revival  of  Roman 
Catholicism  on  the  European  continent  that  the  so- 
ciety did  its  most  effective,  if  not  its  most  praiseworthv 
work.  It  early  devoted  itself  to  the  control  of  higher 
education,  a  means  of  influence  the  importance  of 
which  was  clearly  perceived  by  Loyola.  Much  in 
the  same  way  as  that  born  leader  availed  himself  of 
the  individuahsm  of  his  age,  and  yet  made  it  sub- 
servient to  a  single  purpose  in  his  society  at  large, 
the  Jesuits  in  their  schools  took  into  service  the 
admired  humanistic  culture  of  the  Renaissance,  and 
yet  held  it  in  absolute  obedience  to  the  church. 
Their  schools  and  their  instructors  who  gained  a 
foothold  in  older  seats  of  learning  were  greatly  ad- 
mired for  more  than  a  century  after  the  founding  of 
the  society,  and  their  teaching,  the  fame  of  which 
often  attracted  pupils  whose  Protestantism  was  luke- 
warm, proved  a  potent  means  of  extending  their 
influence  and  renewing  the  sway  of  the  church  which 
they  served. 

Though  no  part  of  the  original  intention  of  the  so- 
ciety, its  political  activity  soon  became  one  of  its 
most  formidable  weapons.  That  activity  was  the 
natural  outgrowth  of  its  constitution  and  principles. 
The  body  was  international  in  membership,  and 
bound  by  strict  obedience  to  generals  like  Loyola, 
Lainez,  and  Borgia,  of  surpassing  political  gifts. 
To  them  the  members  reported  the  minutest  affairs 
of  the  lands  in  which  they  were  stationed.     The  so- 


282     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

ciety  could  not  but  become  a  political  force.  No 
wonder  that  the  Jesuits  proved  the  chief  agents  in 
restoring  many  of  the  princes  of  Germany  to  the 
Roman  obedience,  that  they  were  the  terror  of  such 
sovereigns  as  Elizabeth  of  England  or  William  the 
Silent  of  the  Netherlands,  or  that  the  governments 
even  of  the  most  CathoHc  lands  came  ultimately  to 
look  upon  their  activity  with  fear  and  hostility. 

In  their  teaching  and  practice  the  Jesuits  not 
merely  emphasized  obedience  to  the  papacy,  but 
those  features  of  Romanism  which  are  most  at 
variance  with  Protestantism.  Devotion  to  the 
Virgin  was  cultivated.  Frequent  participation  in  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  enjoined.  The  confessional  was 
exalted  and  its  use  impressed  on  the  people,  and 
special  papal  privileges  gave  the  members  of  the 
society  larger  powers  of  absolution  than  those  ordi- 
narily possessed  by  simple  priests.  But  this  em- 
phasis on  the  confessional  became  the  doorway  to 
what  has  seemed  to  many  of  the  Roman  church,  as 
well  as  to  Protestants,  a  lax  conception  of  moral 
values.  The  views  of  sin  characteristic  of  the  so- 
ciety were  superficial.  An  elaborate  and  unstrenu- 
ous  system  of  casuistry  was  developed.  Results  were 
exalted  at  the  expense  of  the  moral  worth  of  the 
means  by  which  they  were  achieved;  and  that  only 
came  to  be  considered  fully  sin,  in  the  theological 
sense,  which  is  done  with  a  clear  recognition  of  its 
evil  character,  and  a  conscious  consent  of  the  will. 


IGNATIUS  LOYOLA  283 

The  general  tone  of  Jesuit  morality  was  unstrenuous, 
not  merely  when  compared  with  that  of  Protestant- 
ism, but  when  examined  in  the  light  of  the  stricter 
teachings  of  the  Roman  church  itself. 

With  its  faults  and  virtues,  the  society  founded  by 
Loyola  has  been  since  the  Reformation  the  most 
powerful  force  in  the  Roman  church.  It  has  had  its 
missionaries,  its  martyrs,  its  men  of  saintly  lives  and 
high  consecration  in  abundance.  It  has  also  had 
many  a  political  intriguant  and  schemer.  It  did 
more  than  any  other  agency  to  limit  the  advance  of 
Protestantism;  but  it  has  intensified  and  developed 
those  tendencies  in  the  Roman  church  against  which 
Protestantism  protested.  Its  power  is  still  unex- 
hausted, and  the  work  of  Loyola  must  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  abiding  legacies  which  the  six- 
teenth century  has  bequeathed  to  the  modern  world. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Was  the  "Counter-Reformation"  wholly  a  reaction 
from  Protestantism?  With  what  kind  of  a  Reformation 
was  it  content  ? 

2.  What  was  the  relation  of  Spain  to  the  Roman  awaken- 
ing ?    Why  ? 

3.  What  was  the  early  life  of  Loyola  ?  How  did  he  turn 
to  Christian  things  ? 

4.  Describe  the  chief  characteristics  of  Loyola's  religious 
experience. 

5.  What  were  the  Spiritual  Exercises?  What  did  they 
aim  to  accomplish  ? 

6.  Give  some  account  of  Loyola's  student  life. 


284     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

7.  Who  were  some  of  Loyola's  early  companions  and  how 
did  he  win  them  ? 

8.  When  and  with  what  purpose  was  the  Society  of  Jesus 
founded  ?     Its  peculiarities  ?     The  meaning  of  the  name  ? 

9.  When  did  Loyola  die?  Who  succeeded  him  in  the 
generalship  of  the  society  ? 

10.  What  can  be  said  of  the  missionary  work  of  the 
society  ?  Who  was  its  most  famous  missionary  ?  Where  did 
he  labor  ? 

11.  What  was  the  relation  of  the  society  to  education? 

12.  What  may  be  said  of  its  political  tendencies? 

13.  What  aspects  of  Roman  Catholicism  did  the  society 
emphasize?     Why  have  its  moral  tendencies  been  criticized? 

14.  What  may  be  said  of  the  extent  of  the  influence  of  the 
society  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

T.  M.  Lindsay,  A  History  of  the  Reformation  (New  York, 

1906,  1907),  II,  526-63. 
Stewart  Rose,  Ignatius  Loyola  and  the  Early  Jesuits  (London, 

1891). 


GEORGE  FOX 


XVI 
GEORGE  FOX 

The  English  Reformation  was  in  many  respects 
unlike  that  on  the  Continent.  Under  Henry  VIII 
political  interests  were  far  more  potent  than  religious 
considerations.  The  country  as  a  whole  was  not 
anxious  for  doctrinal  revolution  and  was  not  pro- 
foundly moved  spiritually.  It  looked  upon  the 
papal  authority  as  foreign,  and  willingly  saw  it  re- 
jected by  the  masterful  sovereign.  It  acquiesced 
in  his  confiscation  of  monastic  property.  It  accepted 
the  relatively  slight  changes  that  he  made  in  worship; 
but,  like  the  king,  the  people  had  little  criticism  of 
the  broad  fundamentals  of  mediaeval  belief.  At  the 
close  of  Henry  VIII's  reign,  in  1547,  three  parties 
existed — a  large  body,  of  whom  the  king  himself 
was  fairly  representative,  insistent  that  England 
should  be  for  Englishmen,  in  church  as  well  as  in 
state,  but  not  sympathizing  with  a  Reformation  like 
that  of  Luther;  and  two  small  factions,  one  holding 
to  the  ancient  connection  with  Rome,  and  the  other 
Protestant  as  Germany  and  Switzerland  understood 
Protestantism. 

After  the  death  of  Henry  VIII  the  small  parties 
successively  controlled  England.  Under  the  nominal 
rule  of  Edward  VI,  to  1553,  the  Protestants  were  in 
287 


288     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

power,  and  to  their  supremacy  were  due  the  English 
Prayer-Book  and  the  Protestant  Articles  of  Faith. 
Under  Mary,  to  1558,  the  Roman  faction  was  upper- 
most; and  persecutions,  mild,  indeed,  compared 
with  those  on  the  Continent,  but  sufficient  to  give  her 
the  name  "Bloody"  in  memory,  marked  her  reign. 
At  her  accession,  in  1558,  Elizabeth  was  confronted 
by  a  most  difficult  problem.  She  would  rule  the 
English  church,  independently  of  the  pope,  as  her 
father  had  done.  To  this  end,  and  to  maintain  her 
foreign  politics  and  even  her  own  claim  to  the 
throne,  she  must  rule  as  a  Protestant.  But  she 
could  not  afford  to  alienate  those  of  her  subjects  to 
whom  any  extreme  Protestantism  was  distasteful. 
Hence  her  own  policy  was  one  of  compromise — a 
course  which  her  own  lack  of  deep  religious  con- 
victions rendered  the  easier. 

From  many  points  of  view  Elizabeth's  policy  was 
eminently  successful.  She  avoided  the  civil  wars 
between  Protestants  and  Catholics  which  contempo- 
raneously devastated  France.  The  country  pros- 
pered. The  vast  majority  of  the  parish  clergy,  and 
of  their  parishioners,  accepted  the  transition  from 
Mary's  Romanism  to  Elizabeth's  moderate  Protes- 
tantism without  resistance.  But  from  the  first  decade 
of  her  long  reign  a  growing  party,  called  the  Puri- 
tans, felt  that  her  reformation  was  far  from  thor- 
ough, desired  the  removal  of  inefficient  clergy,  the 
establishment  everywhere  of  an  earnest,  preaching 


GEORGE  FOX  289 

ministry,  the  purification  of  worship  by  the  removal  of 
what  it  deemed  relics  of  Roman  superstition,  and  the 
enforcement  of  rigorous  church  discipline.  These 
changes  Elizabeth  resisted  as  divisive.  The  Puritans, 
thus  balked,  went  a  step  farther,  and  questioned  the 
rightfulness  of  an  ecclesiastical  constitution  in  which 
the  sovereign  and  the  bishops  whom  she  appointed 
blocked  what  the  Puritans  deemed  such  needful  re- 
forms. The  more  radical  of  the  party,  the  "  Sepa- 
ratists," ancestors  of  the  Congregationalists,  proposed 
withdrawal  from  the  government  church  as  the  only 
remedy;  but  the  great  majority  of  Puritans  believed  a 
national  church  desirable  and  thought  that  the  Church 
of  England  could  be  reconstituted  on  what  they  held 
to  be  a  more  scriptural  model.  Calvinists  in  theology, 
they  found  their  model  of  what  the  church  should  be 
largely  in  the  Presbyterianism  which  had  come  forth 
from  Geneva.  To  them  the  queen  showed  utmost 
hostility;  but  all  through  her  long  reign  a  real 
religious  awakening  of  the  English  people  was  in 
progress,  and  when  she  died,  in  1603,  religious  ques- 
tions had  become  the  foremost  problems  in  English 
thought. 

It  was  a  turmoiled  situation,  therefore,  that  faced 
the  Scottish  James  I  on  his  accession  to  the  English 
throne ;  and  his  want  of  skill  and  evident  partisanship 
but  fanned  the  elements  of  discord.  Religiously,  he 
took  the  anti-Puritan  side.  His  political  policy  soon 
alienated,    moreover,    the   lovers   of  constitutional 


290    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

liberty.  On  his  death,  in  1625,  his  son,  Charles  I, 
but  embittered  the  struggle  by  attempts  to  crush 
Puritanism,  to  rule  without  Parliament,  and  to  force 
episcopacy  and  the  Prayer-Book  on  stubborn  Scot- 
land. In  1642,  the  great  civil  war  between  king  and 
Parliament  began,  which  led  soon  to  the  overthrow  of 
episcopacy,  and,  in  1649,  to  the  execution  of  Charles 
himself.  An  advisory  religious  assembly,  which  be- 
gan its  sessions  by  parhamentary  appointment  at 
Westminster  in  1643,  prepared  a  strongly  Calvinistic 
Confession  of  Faith  as  the  creed  of  England,  and 
established,  though  very  imperfectly,  the  Presbyterian 
form  of  government. 

Meanwhile,  the  surging  religious  life  of  England 
was  manifesting  other  forms.  Independency,  or 
Congregationalism,  was  widespread  in  the  army 
which  Cromwell  had  led  to  victory.  Baptists,  though 
relatively  far  fewer,  were  growing  in  numbers.  The 
dominant  religious  type  was,  however,  the  Puritan; 
and  with  the  Puritan,  no  less  than  with  the  Episco- 
palian of  that  day,  the  minister  held  his  office  ulti- 
mately by  appointment  by  the  state.  Even  Congre- 
gationahsts  accepted  many  state  appointments  from 
the  friendly  hand  of  Cromwell.  Though  generally 
men  of  character,  these  state-made  ministers  were 
not  always  of  personal  religious  experience.  The 
prevailing  type  of  Puritan  theology  was  intensely 
insistent  on  the  Calvinistic  doctrines  of  election  and 
reprobation;  and  in  its  profound  reverence  for  the 


GEORGE  FOX  291 

Bible  taught  that  God  had  once  for  all  revealed  him- 
self to  men  through  the  Scriptures,  and  no  further 
revelation  was  to  be  sought  than  that  contained  in 
the  "Word  of  God." 

It  was  in  this  situation  that  George  Fox,  the  found- 
er of  the  Quakers,  began  his  work.  Fox  was  born 
in  July,  1624,  in  Fenny  Drayton,  about  in  the  center 
of  England,  the  son  of  a  weaver  of  upright  character 
but  poor  circumstances.^  His  education  was  of  the 
sHghtest,  but  he  grew  up  a  serious-minded  youth, 
who  "never  wronged  man  or  woman."^  At  twelve, 
he  was  apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker  who  also  dealt 
in 'cattle  and  wool.  His  conversion  came  about  in  a 
simple,  though  curious,  manner.  Invited  by  some 
friends,  who  were  nominal  Christians,  to  drink  with 
them  he  consented;  but  when  they  proposed  that 
he  who  should  first  leave  off  should  pay  for  all,  Fox's 
conscience  awoke  at  the  inconsistency  of  such 
drunken  practices  with  the  Christian  profession  and 
he  promptly  left  them.  It  was  the  first  ground-note 
of  Fox's  rehgious  experience,  the  conviction  that  if 
religion  is  sincere  it  must  rule  the  whole  life;  he 
became  "sensible"  that  the  majority  of  nominal 
Christians  "did  not  possess  what  they  professed."^ 
As  he  struggled  and  prayed,  a  further  experience 

1  The  best  account  of  Fox  is  in  his  own  Journals,  which  have 
been  abridged  and  published  in  convenient  form  by  Professor 
R.  M.  Jones,  George  Fox,  an  Autobiography  (Philadelphia,  1903). 

2  Jones,  George  Fox,  I,  67. 

3  Ihid.,  I,  68,  69. 


292     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

came  to  him.  He  believed  that  God  spoke  directly, 
though  inwardly,  to  his  soul.  "At  the  command  of 
God,  the  ninth  of  the  seventh  month,  1643,  I  left  my 
relations,  and  broke  off  all  familiarity  or  fellowship 
with  young  or  old."^  Then  followed  a  period  of 
wandering  and  of  consultation  with  ministers  as  to 
his  spiritual  state;  but  to  no  comfort.  Early  in 
1646,  however,  as  he  was  approaching  the  town  of 
Coventry,  "the  Lord  opened  to  me  that  if  all  were 
believers,  then  they  were  all  born  of  God,  and  passed 
from  death  to  life;  and  that  none  were  true  believers 
but  such;  and  though  others  said  they  were  be- 
lievers, yet  they  were  not."^ 

Tried  by  this  test,  which  made  Christianity  a 
vital,  personal  experience,  the  ministers,  from  whom 
he  had  had  so  little  comfort,  seemed  to  Fox  to  be 
wanting;  and  he  came  to  the  further  conclusion 
"that  being  bred  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge  was  not 
enough  to  fit  and  qualify  men  to  be  ministers  of 
Christ. "3  With  this  radical  criticism  of  the  ministry 
came  a  dislike  for  church  edifices,  or  "steeple 
houses"  as  Fox  called  them,  since  the  Lord  "did  not 
dwell  in  these  temples  ....  but  in  people's 
hearts."  The  true  light  of  the  Christian  is  the  in- 
ward revelation  of  "the  pure  knowledge  of  God, 
and  of  Christ  alone,  without  the  help  of  any  man, 
book  or  writing. "4 

1  Jones,  George  Fox,  I,  68,  69.  3  Ibid.,  I,  75. 

2  Ibid.,  1,  74.  4  Ibid.,  1,  76,  82. 


GEORGE  FOX  293 

These  doctrines  of  the  "inner  light,"  and  of  the 
duty  of  complete  conformity  of  life  to  its  guidance, 
whatever  the  cost  might  be,  were  always  the  really 
fundamental  principles  of  Fox,  and  became  those  of 
the  society  to  which  its  critics  soon  gave  the  name 
"  Quakers,"  but  which  he  preferred  to  call ''  Friends." 
With  them  were  associated  many  relatively  minor 
peculiarities,  some  of  them  directly  derived  from 
these  principles,  and  others  from  views  which  had 
appeared  and  reappeared  in  the  Middle  Ages  and 
Reformation  history,  among  bodies  like  the  Wal- 
denses,  or  the  Anabaptists.  Some  of  them  he  may 
have  derived  from  contact  with  the  early  English 
Baptists,  who,  in  turn,  received  them  from  fellow- 
believers  in  Holland.'  Among  the  direct  conse- 
quences of  his  principle  of  the  "inner  light,"  was  his 
conviction  that  all  who  were  moved  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  whether  men  or  women,  were  true  preachers, 
and  that  none  not  so  moved,  or  who  were  dependent 
on  appointment  in  a  state  church  for  their  creden- 
tials of  authority,  deserved  any  ministerial  recogni- 
tion whatever.  From  his  conception  of  the  essential 
equality  of  all  Christians,  and  his  strong  hatred  of  all 
shams.  Fox  came  to  insist  that  the  hat  should  never 
be  removed  as  a  sign  of  the  inferiority  of  one  man  to 
another,  that  no  merely  complimentary  titles  should 

I  See  Robert  Barclay,  The  Inner  Life  0}  the  Religious  Societies 
of  the  Commonwealth  (London,  1879),  pp.  221-52,  273,  298,  352, 
501,  518. 


294    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

be  used,^  and  that  individuals  however  highly  placed, 
should  be  addressed  as  "thou"  and  "thee"  instead 
of  by  the  plural  "you,"  which  then  implied  a  defer- 
ence to  rank  which  its  employment  no  longer  signi- 
fies. Since  all  true  religious  life  is,  in  his  opinion, 
inward,  he  rejected  all  outward  sacraments  as  un- 
necessary. To  his  thinking,  the  Calvinistic  division 
of  mankind  into  the  elect  and  the  reprobate  is  un- 
warranted, and  the  Holy  Spirit  moves  effectively  on 
all  hearts  that  will  welcome  his  influence.  In  sym- 
pathy with  many  earlier  religious  movements,  he 
understood  the  New  Testament  and  the  "  inner  light" 
alike  as  prohibiting  the  use  of  judicial  oaths  or  any 
appeal  to  arms  or  other  employment  of  force. 

With  these  principles  and  peculiarities,  and  mas- 
tered by  a  profound  consciousness  of  a  divine  call. 
Fox  began  his  mission  as  a  preacher  in  1647.  Fanat- 
ical, extravagant  in  language,  denunciatory,  he 
aroused  immense  opposition  and  was  met  with  every 
insult.  Ridicule  was  heaped  upon  him.  He  was 
beaten,  stoned,  and  set  in  the  stocks.  In  1650  and 
165 1  he  spent  a  year  as  a  prisoner  in  Derby  jail — an 
experience  to  be  followed  by  at  least  seven  other 
imprisonments  in  various  parts  of  England,  the  last 
of  which  was  not  ended  till  1678.  But  while  Fox 
encountered  hostihty  from  most,  his  transparent 
spiritual    sincerity,    his    earnestness,    his    courage, 

I  Fox  did  not  reject  legal  titles,  such  as  "king,"  "protector," 
"justice,"  etc. 


GEORGE  FOX  295 

and  the  impression  that  he  conveyed  of  being 
the  bearer  of  a  message  not  his  own,  won  many 
converts,  mostly,  indeed,  from  the  middle  and  lower 
classes,  but  some  of  wealth  and  station.  Men  like 
Cromwell,  who  were  far  from  sympathizing  with  his 
peculiar  views,  respected  his  sincerity  and  acknowl- 
edged his  power.  Soon  others  proclaimed  his  doc- 
trines. By  1654  no  less  than  sixty  missionaries  of 
the  Quaker  faith  were  traveling  throughout  England. 
In  1656  they  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  Massachusetts, 
and,  before  1660,  had  borne  their  testimony  in  Scot- 
land, Ireland,  Germany,  France,  Switzerland,  Italy, 
Turkey,  Palestine,  and  the  West  India  islands — in 
many  of  these  lands  without  any  permanent  effect. 
As  with  Fox,  so  with  his  followers,  persecution  was  a 
frequent  experience.  At  the  restoration  of  the 
Stuart  monarchy,  in  1660,  no  less  than  3,170  Quakers 
were  in  English  jails,  and  by  1661  four  had  been 
hanged  in  Massachusetts.  Undoubtedly  these  early 
Quakers  did  much  by  fanatical  attacks  and  extrava- 
gant conduct  to  excite  hostility;  but  as  the  move- 
ment grew  in  age  its  extremer  manifestations  rapidly 
disappeared,  to  be  followed  by  the  sobriety  and  good 
order  that  soon  became  characteristic  of  the  society. 
When  freed  from  prison  and  till  disabled  by  the 
infirmities  of  age.  Fox  manifested  a  restless  activity. 
He  preached  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
England.  Between  1671  and  1673  he  visited  Barba- 
does  and  Jamaica,  going  thence  by  way  of  Maryland, 


296     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Delaware,  New  Jersey,  and  Long  Island,  to  Rhode 
Island,  and,  on  his  return,  as  far  south  as  North 
Carolina,  everywhere  advancing  the  cause  which  he 
had  at  heart.  This  long  journey  through  what 
were  slave-holding  lands  strengthened  in  him  the 
sense  already  expressed  in  1656  of  the  evil  of  hu- 
man bondage  and  its  essential  unrighteousness — a 
conviction  which  the  Friends  were  to  entertain  more 
deeply  and  to  make  more  effective  than  any  other 
Christian  body.  With  less  success  he  visited  Hol- 
land in  1677  and  1684,  the  journey  on  the  former 
occasion  being  extended  to  Germany. 

On  October  27,  1669,  Fox  married  one  of  his  early 
disciples,  who  had  become  a  widow,  Margaret  Fell, 
possessed  of  property  and  position,  whose  home, 
Swarthmore  Hall,  had  long  been  a  refuge  for  the 
Quakers.  A  woman  of  high  character  and  like 
spirit,  she  aided  and  supplemented  his  work,  and 
survived  him  by  more  than  a  decade.  The  greatest 
trophy  of  the  early  activities  of  the  Quakers  was  un- 
doubtedly William  Penn.  Born  in  1644,  the  son  of 
Admiral  Sir  William  Penn,  he  enjoyed  the  best  cul- 
ture and  education  that  England  afforded.  Always 
of  a  mystically  religious  frame  of  mind,  he  came 
under  Quaker  influences,  and  in  1667  threw  in  his 
lot  wholly  with  the  society,  which  he  defended  in 
vigorous  pamphlets,  and  in  common  with  the  hum- 
bler members  of  which  he  suffered  repeated  im- 
prisonment.     Nevertheless,  his    political    influence 


GEORGE  FOX  297 

was  always  large.  By  that  influence  he  was  able  to 
bring  to  a  realization  a  wish  that  Fox  had  entertained 
since  1660,  that  Quakers  should  possess  some  terri- 
tory in  which  they  might  enjoy  across  the  Atlantic 
a  freedom  not  theirs  in  England. 

After  a  rather  unsatisfying  connection  with  the 
affairs  of  New  Jersey,  beginning  in  1674,  Penn  se- 
cured from  Charles  II  in  compensation  for  claims 
on  the  English  treasury  which  he  had  inherited  from 
his  father,  the  charter  of  Pennsylvania,  under  date 
of  March  4,  1681.  The  result  was  the  immediate 
settlement,  under  Penn's  leadership,  of  what  has 
become  one  of  the  greatest  of  American  common- 
wealths. Its  government,  as  established  by  Penn, 
was  of  large  liberality.  Religious  freedom  in  high 
degree  was  allowed.  Fairness  marked  its  relations 
with  the  Indians.  Industry  and  thrift  were  pro- 
moted. The  Quaker  "experiment"  must  rank 
among  the  most  successful  of  American  colonial 
enterprises,  though  its  course  was  not  without  great 
trials  and  much  political  friction,  for  Penn's  colony 
attracted  many  who  were  not  Quakers,  notably  from 
Germany  as  well  as  from  the  homeland. 

It  may  be  remarked  that  throughout  the  eighteenth 
century  the  Quaker  body  was  the  communion  of 
Christians  which  was  perhaps  the  most  widely  dis- 
tributed geographically  of  any  in  British  America. 
Numbering  perhaps  50,000  by  1760,  it  was  never  as 
large  as  several  other  religious  communions,  but  it 


29^     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

was  broadly  scattered  throughout  the  colonies  that 
became  the  United  States. 

Fox's  last  years  were  full  of  Christian  confidence 
and  peace.  He  saw  his  society  relieved  of  most  of 
its  civil  disabilities  by  the  Toleration  Act  of  1689. 
It  was  never  in  more  flourishing  state  than  when  he 
died,  on  January  13,  1691,  in  London.  His  end  was 
triumphant.  To  those  who  stood  by  his  bedside  he 
declared,  using  the  technical  language  of  the  piety  of 
his  day,  "All  is  well;  the  Seed  of  God  reigns  over  all 
and  over  death  itself.  "^  His  fame  must  ever  be  that 
of  one  of  the  most  forceful  religious  leaders  that 
Anglo-Saxon  Christendom  has  produced.  From 
Fox's  death,  the  Society  which  he  had  founded  ceased 
to  advance  with  any  rapidity,  and  soon  came  sensibl) 
to  decline  in  adherents.  But  its  contributions  to 
human  freedom,  abolition  of  slavery,  prison  reform, 
and  the  betterment  of  social  and  industrial  condi- 
tions have  been  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  relative 
scantiness  of  its  numbers. 

In  the  judgment  of  most  branches  of  the  Christian 
church.  Fox  was  far  too  radical  in  his  rejection  of 
what  he  deemed  the  harmful  externals  of  worship 
and  organization.  To  the  thought  of  most  Chris- 
tians, the  church  needs  an  established  and  educated 
ministry,  an  orderly  and  regular  service,  and  the 
visible  sacraments.  But  to  recognize  that  he  rejected 
much  that  long  Christian  experience  has  approved 

I  Jones,  op.  cit.,  II,  578. 


GEORGE  FOX  299 

is  not  to  deny  the  purity  of  his  intentions,  or  the 
value  of  much  of  his  work.  He  hated  all  shams  and 
pretenses.  He  was  the  enemy  of  all  formalism 
in  worship,  however  formal  his  followers  have 
shown  themselves  in  dress,  speech,  and  behavior. 
He  asserted  that  the  life  must  be  the  expression  of 
the  faith.  He  declared  that  all  men  are  capable  of 
accepting  the  gospel  offer.  He  taught  the  essential 
spiritual  equality  of  all  believers.  But  his  greatest 
contribution  was  his  conception  of  the  ''  inner  light. " 
In  an  age  which  shut  up  all  divine  revelation 
in  the  pages  of  a  Book,  he  maintained  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  speaks  directly  and  revealingly  now  to 
the  believer;  not  merely  operates  on  the  believer's 
heart  to  produce  faith  as  all  Protestantism  held,  but 
guides,  illuminates,  and  directs.  That  truth  alone, 
if  Fox  had  made  no  other  contribution  to  religious 
thought,  is  enough  to  give  him  place  among  those  to 
whom  Christian  life  owes  much. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  How  did  the  English  Reformation  diflFer  from  that  on 
the  Continent?  What  degree  of  Protestantism  was  repre- 
sented by  Henry  VIII  ? 

2.  What  parties  were  dominant  under  Edward  VI  and 
Mary  ?    Were  either  representative  of  England  as  a  whole  ? 

3.  What  was  the  religious  policy  of  Elizabeth?  In  what 
respects  was  it  successful?  Why  was  it  disliked  by  the 
Puritans  ?     What  was  her  attitude  toward  them  ?     Why  ? 

4.  What  was  the  religious  condition    of   England  under 


300     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

James  I  and  Charles  I?  Why  the  civil  wars?  What  was 
the  attitude  of  Puritanism  toward  a  state  church?  Its 
theological  convictions  ? 

5.  Describe  the  early  life  of  George  Fox.  His  conver- 
sion? His  sense  of  divine  revelations?  His  criticisms  of 
existing  religion  ? 

6.  Why  did  Fox  criticize  the  ministers?  Why  was  not 
an  education  sufficient  ? 

7.  What  was  Fox's  doctrine  of  the  *' inner  light"  ? 

8.  Describe  other  peculiarities  of  Fox's  religious  belief. 

9  What  were  Fox's  qualities  as  a  preacher?  How  was 
he  treated  ?     His  success  ? 

10.  What  was  the  early  growth  of  the  Quakers?  Their 
missionary  zeal?  Fox's  journeys  to  America,  Holland," and 
Germany  ? 

11.  The  value  of  William  Penn  to  the  Quaker  cause? 
Pennsylvania,  its  foundation  and  characteristics  ? 

12.  Fox's  marriage,  last  days,  and  death  ? 

13.  The  limitations  and  the  services  of  his  movement? 
Its  permanent  value  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

Rufus  M.  Jones,  George  Fox:  An  Autobiography  (Philadel- 
phia, 1903). 

Thomas  Hodgkin,  George  Fox  (London,  1896). 

A.  C.  Thomas  and  R.  H.  Thomas,  The  History  of  the  Society 
of  Friends  in  America,  "American  Church  History" 
Series  (New  York,  1894),  Vol.  XII,  163-308. 


NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF 


XVII 
NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF 

In  all  Protestant  lands  the  fresh,  creative  epoch  of 
the  Reformation  was  followed  by  a  new  formalism. 
The  lesser  men,  who  succeeded  the  great  reformers, 
looked  upon  their  work  as  essentially  complete.  The 
Bible  was  regarded  as  the  source  of  truth;  but  its 
teachings  were  viewed  as  fully  and  finally  garnered 
into  the  theological  systems  of  the  Reformation  age. 
A  new  scholasticism  arose,  as  dry  as  that  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.  This  was  particularly  the  case  in  Ger- 
many, where  it  has  been  weU  said  that  for  the  author- 
ity of  the  mediaeval  church  was  substituted  the 
authority  of  the  new  theologians.  Great  weight  was 
laid  on  "pure  doctrine."  Much  was  made  of  the 
church  as  an  institution,  of  the  corporate  and  official 
aspects  of  Christianity,  and  of  the  sacraments  as  of 
themselves  placing  their  serious-minded  receivers  in 
the  sure  ranks  of  Christian  discipleship.  ^The  con- 
scious personal  relation  to  Christ  sank  into  the  back- 
ground, and  for  it  was  largely  substituted  a  concep- 
tion of  the  Christian  life  which  saw  as  its  essential 
features  orthodoxy  of  doctrine,  faithful  attendance 
on  public  worship,  and  employment  of  the  sacra- 
ments which  the  church  offered..'  This  condition  has 
sometimes,  though  not  quite  justly,  been  called  "dead 
orthodoxy." 

303 


304     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

The  great  reaction  from  this  formal  conception  of 
the  Christian  life  was  that  known  in  Germany  as 
"Pietism,"  and  it  had  for  its  leader  Philipp  Jakob 
Spener.  Born  in  1635,  at  Rappoltsweiler  in  Alsace, 
he  grew  up  under  strong  religious  impressions,  which 
were  intensified  by  acquaintance  with  the  writings 
of  the  German  ascetic-mystic,  Johann  Arndt,  and 
translations  of  the  works  of  English  Puritans.^ 
Graduation  at  the  University  of  Strassburg  was  fol- 
lowed by  sojourns  in  Basel  and  Geneva  and  by  his 
settlement,  in  1666,  as  chief  pastor  in  the  important 
Lutheran  city  of  Frankfort.  Convinced  that  the 
religious  life  of  the  city  was  at  a  low  ebb,  Spener,  in 
1670,  gathered  a  little  company  of  like-minded  men 
and  women  in  his  house  twice  weekly  for  pious  read- 
ing and  religious  conversation.  To  these  meetings 
the  name  Collegia  pietatis  was  soon  given.  Five 
years  later,  Spener  published  his  Pia  desideria,  in 
which  he  recommended  the  establishment  of  similar 
collegia,  mutual  watch,  a  strenuous,  rather  ascetic, 
Christian  life,  better  care  of  the  morals  and  Christian 
character  of  theological  students,  and  simpler  and 
more  spiritual  preaching.  Spener's  thought  was 
that  a  kernel  of  experiential  Christians  should  be 
gathered  in  each  congregation  which  should  cultivate 

I  The  writer  owes  much  to  the  admirable  articles  in  Hauck's 
Realencyklopddie  by  Griinberg  on  "Spener,"  XVIII,  609-22; 
by  Forster-Halle  on  "Francke, "  VI,  150-58;  by  Mirbt  on  "Piet- 
ism," XV,  774-815;  and  by  Gottschick  on  "Adiaphora,"  I, 
174-76. 


NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF      305 

a  stricter  and  warmer  Christian  life  with  the  hope  of 
ultimately  leavening  the  whole.  He  felt  that  only 
those  who  had  been  ''born  again"  by  a  conscious 
Christian  experience — "conversion" — were  fitted  for 
this  work  or  should  have  a  place  in  the  ministry. 

Spener's  views  won  friends  and  aroused  opposition, 
so  that,  in  1686,  he  accepted  a  call  to  become  preacher 
at  the  Saxon  court  in  Dresden.  Here  his  troubles 
were  but  increased.  The  theological  faculties  of  the 
universities  of  Leipzig  and  Wittenberg  attacked  him 
as  unorthodox  and  as  of  Puritan  strictness  in  his  con- 
ception of  the  Christian  life.  Though  a  Lutheran 
in  his  own  belief,  the  comparative  indifference  with 
which  he  regarded  what  seemed  to  him  minor  theo- 
logical divergences  so  long  as  "the  heart"  is  right, 
was  regarded  by  orthodox  Lutherans  as  treason  to 
"pure  doctrine."  Many  supported  him,  however, 
and  soon  German  Protestantism  was  divided  into 
two  camps.  Plain-spoken  pastoral  admonitions  to 
the  Saxon  Elector  made  his  further  stay  at  Dresden 
uncomfortable,  and  he  was  glad  to  accept  a  call  to 
Berlin  in  1691,  where  he  found  greater  peace  and 
exercised  a  large  influence  till  his  death  in  1705. 

Spener's  most  eminent  disciple  was  August  Her- 
mann Francke.  Born  in  Llibeck  in  1663,  and  hav- 
ing lost  his  father  when  but  seven  years  old,  thoughts 
of  Christian  service  in  the  ministry  were  awakened  in 
him  by  an  elder  sister,  and,  after  a  course  of  study  in 
Kiel  and  Leipzig,  he  became,  in  1685,  ^-n  instructor 


3o6     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

in  the  university  of  the  city  last  named.  Here  he 
labored  to  advance  the  study  of  the  Bible.  In  1687, 
in  further  preparation  for  the  ministry,  he  went  to 
Liineburg,  and  there,  as  he  was  writing  a  sermon  on 
John  20:31,  an  experience  came  to  him  which  he 
ever  after  regarded  as  his  "conversion."  It  seemed 
to  him  that  he  had  passed  from  death  to  spiritual  life. 
A  few  months  later  he  made  a  long  visit  to  Spener  in 
Dresden,  and  began  a  personal  intimacy  that  was  to 
continue  till  the  latter's  death.  On  the  resumption 
of  his  teaching  in  Leipzig,  in  1689,  he  began  lecturing 
with  a  great  following  on  the  Scriptures  and  was  an 
energetic  leader  in  a  warmer  spiritual  life  among  the 
students.  Some  of  the  latter,  however,  in  their  new- 
found enthusiasm,  began  to  despise  their  ordinary 
studies  as  worldly  and  unnecessary;  the  hostility  of 
Francke's  colleagues  in  the  faculty  was  aroused,  and, 
in  1690,  he  accepted  a  pastorate  in  Erfurt.  Opposi- 
tion followed  him  thither,  and  the  next  year  he  had 
to  leave  this  new  post.  Through  Spener's  influence 
he  obtained  a  pastorate,  however,  in  Glaucha,  near 
Halle,  and  the  promise  of  a  professorship  in  the  new 
university  which  was  opened  in  1694,  at  the  place 
last  named,  under  Prussian  auspices.  Thanks  to 
Francke  and  Spener,  the  University  of  Halle  became 
the  home  of  Pietism,  and  Francke  continued  its 
most  influential  professor  till  his  death  in  1727. 
Francke  was  a  man  of  many-sided  activities  as  a 
pastor,  a  teacher,  and  a  reformer.    He  built  up  a 


NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF        307 

great  preparatory  school,  the  Paedagogium,  and  a 
most  useful  orphan  asylum  in  Halle — a  remarkable 
foundation,  estabhshed  by  a  multitude  of  gifts  re- 
ceived, so  Francke  believed,  in  answer  to  prayer — 
and  one  doing  honored  work  to  the  present  day. 
With  it  was  soon  associated  the  institution  for  printing 
and  distributing  the  Bible,  founded  by  Francke's 
friend.  Baron  von  Canstein  in  17 10,  and  still  carrying 
forward  its  activities.  When  King  Frederick  IV,  of 
Denmark,  wished  to  establish  one  of  the  earliest  of 
Protestant  missions  in  India  in  1705,  it  was  among 
Francke's  disciples  in  Halle  that  he  found  his  first 
missionaries,  and  in  Francke  himseK  that  he  had  his 
most  earnest  supporter. 

The  pietistic  conception  of  religion,  as  represented 
by  Francke  and  his  disciples,  was  thus  earnest,  con- 
secrated, self-denying,  benevolent,  and  marked  by 
missionary  zeal.  It  was  strenuous  in  its  attitude 
toward  amusements,  dress,  and  luxury.  Dancing, 
the  theater,  and  cards,  which  the  older  Lutherans 
largely  looked  upon  as  "indifferent  matters"  regard- 
ing which  a  Christian  could  do  as  he  pleased,  were 
viewed  by  the  Pietists  as  hindrances  to  the  Christian 
life  and  to  be  forbidden.  So  far  was  this  tendency 
carried  that  the  children  in  the  orphan  house  in  Halle 
were  not  allowed  to  play.  Entrance  on  the  Christian 
life  was  looked  upon  as  normally  by  a  conscious 
"  conversion. "  The  faults  of  the  Pietists  were  those 
which  often  beset  strenuous  and  earnest  reformers. 


3o8     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Convinced  of  the  need  of  a  warmer  religious  life, 
they  were  too  much  disposed  to  minimize  the  value 
of  the  church,  its  services  and  ordinances,  and  the 
real  Christianity  of  those  who  did  not  think  as  they 
did;  but  that  they  did  a  great  and  a  needed  work  in 
Germany  there  can  be  no  question. 

That  work  in  one  of  its  most  peculiar  and  per- 
manent forms  is  to  be  seen  in  the  achievements  of 
Nicolaus  Ludwig,  Count  of  Zinzendorf,  the  reor- 
ganizer  of  the  Moravians.  Grandson  of  a  nobleman 
who  had  left  Austria  for  his  religious  convictions, 
and  son  of  a  trusted  servant  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
Zinzendorf  was  born  in  Dresden  on  May  26,  1700. 
Spener  was  his  godfather  at  his  baptism.  His  father 
died  when  the  boy  was  but  six  months  old,  his 
mother  married  a  second  time,  and  his  training  came 
into  the  hands  of  his  grandmother,  the  earnest,  piet- 
istic  Baroness  of  Gersdorf — a  correspondent  of 
Spener  and  Francke.  From  his  earliest  childhood 
Zinzendorf  manifested  the  glowing  personal  love  for 
Christ — not  merely  as  his  Lord  but  as  the  truest  and 
nearest  of  friends,  which  was  to  be  the  prime  trait  of 
his  religious  experience  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

When  ten  years  old,  the  boy  was  sent  to  Francke's 
Paedagogium  in  Halle,  where  his  pietistic  tendencies 
were  intensified  and  he  soon  became  a  leader  among 
his  youthful  companions.  He  organized  little  prayer 
meetings,  he  became  interested  in  missions,  and, 
when  fifteen,  established  among  his  schoolmates  an 


NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF        309 

"  Order  of  the  Grain  of  Mustard  Seed"^  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Zinzendorf's 
guardian,  an  uncle,  thinking  this  zeal  unhealthful, 
sent  him,  in  17 16,  to  the  orthodox  Lutheran  Uni- 
versity of  Wittenberg,  where  he  studied  law  for  the 
next  three  years.  They  were  a  time  of  growth.  His 
pietistic  principles  remained  firm  in  essentials;  but 
they  were  broadened  and  shorn  of  many  extrava- 
gances. Then  followed  two  years  of  travel,  includ- 
ing Holland  and  France  in  his  route.  Amid  the 
corruptions  of  the  French  court,  then  notorious  for 
its  profligacy,  he  maintained  his  convictions,  and  he 
returned  to  Dresden,  in  1721,  to  enter  the  service  of 
the  Saxon  Elector,  a  man  of  ripened  experience  and 
unshaken  religious  character. 

Political  life  was  begun,  however,  only  to  please  his 
relatives,  and  Zinzendorf  would  have  much  pre- 
ferred the  ministry.  Most  of  his  life  at  Dresden  was 
devoted  to  rehgious  conversation.  A  meeting  for 
Christian  edification  was  held  every  Sunday  afternoon 
in  his  own  house.  The  opportunity  soon  came  in  an 
unexpected  way  for  a  much  larger  service  that  was  to 
prove  his  life-work.  The  remains  of  the  old  Hussite 
movement,  the  United  Brethren  {Unitas  Fratrum),^ 
which  had  flourished  exceedingly  in  Bohemia  and 
Moravia  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  had  been 
nearly  crushed  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and 
were  subject  to  severe  persecution.     A  revival  was  in 

*  Matt.  13:31.  '  See  anie,  p.  212. 


3IO    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

progress  under  a  Moravian  carpenter,  Christian 
David,  and  the  "Brethren"  were  casting  about  for 
some  place  of  refuge  in  Protestant  lands.  This  they 
found  on  Zinzendorfs  estates,  and  in  1722  David 
began  the  estabHshment  of  the  town  of  Herrnhut. 
With  them  Zinzendorf  entered  into  close  association, 
and  soon  religious-minded  people  of  all  shades  of 
theologic  opinion  and  of  most  various  origins  were 
flocking  to  this  new  Christian  community.  The 
thought  was  that  here  a  town  could  be  erected,  in- 
habited only  by  Christians,  separate  from  the 
"world,"  a  real  "communion  of  saints."  It  was  a 
free  and  social  monasticism,  without  celibacy,  but, 
like  monasticism,  seeking  to  live  the  Christian  life 
under  peculiarly  favorable  conditions  and  apart  from 
the  grosser  temptations. 

A  community  of  such  varied  origin  could  not  find 
its  bond  in  strict  doctrinal  unity.  Zinzendorf  sought  it 
in  love,  and  in  careful  regulation  of  the  life  of  its  mem- 
bers under  a  constitution  of  pecuHar  strenuousness. 
He  wished  to  remain  in  as  close  connection  as  possible 
with  the  Lutheran  communion  of  his  birth,  but  he 
found  it  necessary  to  preserve  the  old  Moravian 
forms,  and,  in  1727,  the  Herrnhut  company  was 
organized  with  bishop,  priests,  and  deacons.  In 
spite  of  these  names,  the  church  organization  really 
depended  on  the  congregation,  and  in  its  government 
laymen  had  a  large  share.  The  affairs  of  the  com- 
munity were  administered  by  a  common  board;  the 


NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF        311 

widows,  maids,  and  young  men  were  lodged  and 
supervised  in  separate  houses,  and  with  distinctive 
clothing;  an  elaborate  and  in  many  respects  beauti- 
ful Hturgy  soon  voiced  public  worship.  From  1727 
Zinzendorf  was  the  guiding  spirit  of  the  Herrnhut 
community,  and,  ten  years  later,  he  received  formal 
ordination  as  bishop  in  the  reorganized  Moravian 
church,  or  "United  Brethren"  as  the  body  preferred 
to  style  itself,  using  its  historic  designation. 

Zinzendorf's  impulses  had  always  been  strongly 
missionary,  and  he  saw  in  all  who  were  moved  by 
love  to  Christ  the  children  of  God.  He  even  at- 
tempted to  influence  the  Roman  and  Greek  churches. 
His  chief  effort  within  the  realm  of  Protestantism 
was,  however,  to  found  separated  "societies,"  more 
or  less  resembling  that  at  Herrnhut,  made  up  of  those 
whom  he  believed  to  be  real  Christians,  as  judged  by 
his  pietistic  tests.  These  he  did  not  deem  a  separate 
church,  but  associations  for  a  warmer  Christian  life 
within  the  various  churches.  His  communion  he 
ever  regarded  as  the  true  people  of  God,  separated 
from  the  world,  and  largely  shielded  from  its  tempta- 
tions. Soon  branch  "societies"  were  formed  in 
various  parts  of  Germany,  in  Holland,  in  England, 
and  in  Pennsylvania.  The  noblest  work  of  Mora- 
vianism,  and  that  most  expressive  of  Zinzendorf's 
own  character,  was  that  of  foreign  missions.  On 
a  visit  to  the  Danish  capital,  Copenhagen,  to  be  pres- 
ent at  the  coronation  of  King  Christian  VI,  in  1731, 


312     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Zinzendorf  met  a  negro  from  the  Danish  West  India 
Islands,  and  was  impressed  with  the  needs  of  the 
race  there  held  in  slavery.  As  a  result,  the  first  of 
the  noble  army  of  Moravian  missionaries,  Leonhard 
Dober  and  David  Nitschmann,  set  forth  from  Herrn- 
hut  on  their  way  to  St.  Thomas,  in  1732.  The 
establishment  of  other  missions  speedily  followed. 
In  1733  Greenland  was  entered;  in  1734,  Lapland; 
in  1735  efforts  were  begun  among  the  American 
Indians  in  Georgia;  in  1737  the  African  Guinea 
Coast  was  reached  and  work  was  begun  among  the 
Hottentots  of  South  Africa,  also;  in  1738  South 
American  Guiana  was  invaded,  and  labors  in  Cey- 
lon and  Algeria  were  commenced  two  years  later. 
The  year  1771  saw  the  establishment,  after  many 
failures,  of  a  successful  mission  in  Labrador.  These 
are  but  part  of  the  regions  to  which  the  gospel  was 
carried  by  indefatigable  Moravian  zeal;  and  a  glance 
at  their  names  shows  a  prime  characteristic  of  these 
missions.  They  are  prevailingly  the  hard  and  neg- 
lected fields  of  the  earth.  In  many  of  them  the 
Moravians  have  been  conspicuously  successful,  carry- 
ing on  their  work  at  marvelously  small  cost,  with 
unwearied  patience  and  heroic  consecration.  First 
of  all  Protestant  bodies  the  Moravian  communion 
awoke,  as  a  whole,  to  the  importance  of  missions; 
and,  in  proportion  to  its  numbers,  its  missionary 
activity  to  this  day  far  exceeds  that  of  any  other 
branch  of  the  Christian  church.     Certainly,  this  one 


NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF        313 

result  of  Zinzendorf's  work,  had  he  done  nothing 
else,  would  shed  an  abiding  luster  on  his  name. 

From  his  first  connection  with  the  Moravians, 
Zinzendorf  and  the  communion  of  which  he  was  the 
head  had  to  endure  bitter  criticism,  not  only  from 
orthodox  Lutherans  but  even  from  the  older  Pietists. 
Much  of  this  was  not  without  considerable  founda- 
tion. Zinzendorf's  basal  principle  of  love  found  at 
first  too  often,  even  in  him,  a  sentimental  expression. 
The  Moravian  hymns  were  objectionable  to  many 
earnest  Christians  by  reason  of  their  presentation 
under  very  earthly  images  of  the  relation  of  the  be- 
liever to  his  Lord.  The  communion,  in  1741, 
formally  chose  Christ  as  its  chief  elder,  and  believed 
his  will  to  be  made  known  by  casting  lots.  It  re- 
garded itself  as  embracing  in  far  too  exclusive  a  sense 
"the  true  Children  of  God."  It  strove  to  regulate 
in  a  really  obnoxious  way  the  most  private  and 
sacred  relations  of  family  life.  As  time  went  on, 
however,  these  excrescences  were  gradually  pruned 
away.  The  experiences  of  the  Moravians  were,  in 
this  regard,  much  the  same  as  those  of  the  early 
Quakers.  The  first  extravagances  gave  place  to 
sobriety  and  order. 

Zinzendorf  himself  had  to  suffer  from  this  opposi- 
tion more  than  mere  unpopularity.  The  Saxon 
government,  probably  moved  by  the  complaints  of 
the  Austrian  authorities  that  he  gave  a  shelter  to 
persecuted  Austrian  subjects,  banished  him  in  1736. 


314    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

This  sentence  but  enlarged  the  sphere  of  Zinzendorf's 
activities.  He  labored  in  various  parts  of  Germany, 
Holland,  Switzerland,  England,  the  West  India 
islands,  and  North  America.  From  December, 
1 741,  to  January,  1743,  he  made  his  home  in  Penn- 
sylvania. Here  he  strove  to  unite  the  religious  forces 
of  the  German  settlers  of  the  commonwealth  in  a 
spirit  of  broad  Christian  charity.  He  served  as 
pastor  of  the  Lutheran  congregation  in  Philadelphia. 
He  sowed  the  seeds  of  Moravian  societies  in  *'  Beth- 
lehem, Nazareth,  Philadelphia,  Hebron,  Heidelberg, 
Lancaster,  and  York  in  Pennsylvania,  and  in  New 
York  City  and  on  Staten  Island."'  He  established 
a  new  Herrnhut,  at  Bethlehem,  where  American 
Moravianism  still  has  one  of  its  chief  homes.  He 
even  attempted  to  do  something,  by  personal  effort, 
toward  spreading  the  gospel  among  the  Indians  of 
the  great  Iroquois  confederacy,  and  provided  for 
prosecution  of  this  enterprise  in  which  David  Zeis- 
berger  was  soon  to  win  so  fair  a  name.  Much  of 
Zinzendorf's  time,  during  his  long  exile,  was  spent  in 
rapid  journeyings  to  superintend  and  promote  the 
cause  he  had  at  heart;  and  nowhere  was  his  con- 
spicuous talent  as  an  organizer  more  clearly  exhibited 
than  in  the  results  of  this  restless  activity. 

A  change  of  sentiment  favorable  to  Zinzendorf  was 
effected  in  the  Saxon  government  itself.     In  1747 

I  J.  T.  Hamilton,  A  History  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  "Ameri- 
can Church  History"  Series  (New  York,  1895),  VIII,  451. 


NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF        315 

the  sentence  of  banishment  was  revoked,  and,  two 
years  later,  primarily  to  secure  greater  political 
security,  the  Moravian  body  acknowledged  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  the  basal  creed  of  the  Lutheran 
churches,  as  the  expression  of  its  faith.  ^  This  act 
wrought  no  change  in  its  purpose,  aims,  or  organiza- 
tion. Zinzendorf  was  now  practically  freed  from  all 
hindrances.  He  continued  his  active  supervision 
and  his  wide-extended  travels  almost  till  his  death, 
which  occurred  in  Herrnhut,  in  the  confidence  of  the 
Christian  faith,  on  May  9,  1760.  Fortunate  in  his 
leadership,  the  Moravian  body  was  equally  happy  in 
his  successor,  August  Gottlieb  Spangenberg  (1704- 
1792),  in  no  sense  a  creative  genius  like  Zinzendorf, 
but  a  man  of  conservatism,  strong  common-sense, 
and  great  administrative  abilities,  who  knew  how  to 
continue  and  improve  the  work  of  his  great  prede- 
cessor, and  to  repress  its  more  extravagant  features 
without  abating  the  effectiveness  of  its  zeal. 

Zinzendorf's  character  had  its  lights  and  its 
shadows.  Of  unbounded  enthusiasm,  great  mission- 
ary zeal,  and  sincerity  of  consecration,  he  was  yet 
inclined  to  what  always  seems  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
temperament  a  sentimental  type  of  religion,  and  he 
would  use  a  scriptural  symbol  or  figurative  expres- 
sion as  the  basis  of  an  extensive  flight  of  spiritual 

I  The  same  year  the  Moravians  in  England  were  favored  with 
exemptions  (from  oaths,  jury  duty,  and  certain  military  services) 
by  act  of  Parliament,  which  also  declared  that  their  bishops  were 
in  apostolical  succession. 


3i6     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

imagination.  But  in  him  positive  services  to  the 
Kingdom  of  God  far  outweighed  any  shortcomings 
or  defects.  He  was  an  organizer  of  marvelous  talent. 
He  devoted  position,  wealth,  above  all  himself,  to  his 
cause,  which  was  that  of  his  Master.  He  voiced  his 
piety  in  hymns,  some  of  which,  like  "  Jesus  still  lead 
on,  till  our  rest  be  won,"  have  been  beloved  of  the 
church  universal.  Few  men  have  shown  such  per- 
sonal devotion  to  Christ,  and  he  gave  the  true  ground- 
note  of  his  character  in  his  declaration  to  his  Herrnhut 
congregation;  "I  have  only  one  passion.  It  is  He, 
none  but  He." 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Did  the  period  succeeding  the  Reformation  maintain  the 
spiritual  zeal  of  that  movement?     Its  characteristics? 

2.  What  was  "Pietism"  ?     Outline  the  life  of  Spener. 

3.  How  did  Spener  attempt  to  advance  vital  religion? 
His  collegia  ?    The  type  of  Christianity  which  he  represented  ? 

4.  What  was  Francke's  early  religious  history?  His 
"conversion"?  How  did  he  become  a  professor  in  Halle? 
What  importance  did  Halle  have  for  Pietism? 

5.  What  were  Francke's  institutions  in  Halle?  Their 
work? 

6.  What  was  the  attitude  of  Pietism  toward  amusements  ? 
What  were  the  merits  of  Pietism  ? 

7.  Describe  Zinzendorf's  life.  Its  religious  traits?  His 
education  ?    The  "Order  of  the  Grain  of  Mustard  Seed"  ? 

8.  Who  were  the  Moravians?  What  did  they  call  them- 
selves ?  From  what  ancient  movement  were  they  descended  ? 
Who  was  Christian  David  ? 

9.  How  did  Zinzendorf  come  in  contact  with  the  Mora- 


NICOLAUS  LUDWIG  VON  ZINZENDORF        317 

vians?    Their  reorganization?     Herrnhut?    What  was  its 
aim  and  how  was  it  organized  ? 

10.  How  did  Moravian  missions  begin?  Some  lands  in 
which  they  labored?  The  characteristics  of  Moravian 
missions?    The  missionary  zeal  of  the  Moravians? 

11.  What  were  some  of  the  criticisms  which  Zinzendorf 
and  the  Moravian  movement  had  to  endure  ?    Why  ? 

12.  What  office  did  Zinzendorf  hold  in  the  Moravian 
church  ?  His  abilities  as  an  organizer  ?  His  banishment,  its 
effects  ?    His  work  in  America  ?     Recall  to  Saxony  ? 

13.  Zinzendorf's  later  life  and  death?     His  character? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

J.  T.  Hamilton,  The  Moravian  Church  in  the  United  States, 
"American  Church  History"  Series  (New  York,  1895), 

vm,  425-508. 

A.  C.  Thompson,  Moravian  Missions  (New  York),  1895. 


JOHN  WESLEY 


XVIII 
JOHN  WESLEY 

It  is  a  fact  of  frequent  observation  that  questions 
which  profoundly  arouse  the  feeHngs  of  one  age  lose 
their  vital  interest  for  its  successor.  Seemingly  of 
overwhelming  importance  to  one  or  two  generations, 
they  come  to  be  viewed  with  apathy.  Such  was  the 
fate  of  the  great  religious  conflict  which  convulsed 
England  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Long  before 
the  Toleration  Act  of  1689  gave  a  larger,  though 
imperfect,  freedom  to  Dissenters  from  the  national 
church,  the  old  Puritan  fire  had  burned  low.  There 
was  little  in  the  England  of  1700  to  lead  one  to  imagine 
that  it  had  been  the  intensely  aroused  land  of  1650. 
The  great  struggle  had  brought,  indeed,  permanent 
enlargements  of  religious  and  political  freedom.  The 
uniformity  which  Archbishop  Laud  had  desired  was 
as  dead  an  issue  as  were  the  ideals  of  the  Stuart 
monarchy  which  he  had  served.  The  religious  con- 
dition of  the  land  was,  however,  one  of  relative 
lethargy.  Neither  among  Dissenters  nor  in  the 
Church  of  England  was  a  vigorous  and  out-reaching 
religious  life  extensively  apparent. 

Among  the  classes  of  the  population  distinguished 
by  station  or  intelligence,  the  older  doctrinal  positions 
were  widely  regarded  as  outgrown.  The  fashion- 
321 


322     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

able  world  had  long  since  scorned  everything  that 
savored  of  Puritanism.  Among  thinking  men  the 
new  philosophy  just  introduced  by  John  Locke,  and 
the  new  discoveries  of  science,  of  which  Sir  Isaac 
Newton's  law  of  gravitation  was  but  the  most  bril- 
liant, were  shaking  the  older  theologies,  though  the 
leaders  mentioned  were  themselves  Christian  men. 
The  new  conception  of  the  universe  as  a  realm  of 
law  thus  introduced  was  demanding  adjustment. 
The  result  in  not  a  few  minds  was  Deism.  That 
system  of  thought  recognized  the  world  as  the  work 
of  an  all-wise  creator,  who,  however,  does  not  inter- 
fere in  its  ongoing  either  by  revelation  or  by  provi- 
dence. With  many,  religion  was  looked  upon  as  an 
essentially  baseless  superstition,  which  learned  men 
could  afford  to  repudiate  privately,  but  which  ought 
to  be  maintained  because  of  its  police  value  over  the 
ignorant. 

The  lower  classes,  though  almost  absolutely  un- 
affected by  the  attitude  of  mind  just  noted  among 
their  superiors  in  station,  were  in  a  condition  of  al- 
most unbelievable  ignorance,  coarseness,  and  neglect. 
The  administration  of  law,  though  ferocious  in  its 
severity,  was  unable  to  give  adequate  public  security. 
The  jails  were  sinks  of  physical  and  moral  rottenness. 
Drunkenness  was  frightfully  prevalent.  The  condi- 
tion of  the  common  people  in  city  and  country  alike 
was  one  of  brutahty. 

There  were,  indeed,  men  of  character,  ability,  and 


JOHN  WESLEY  323 

spiritual  insight  among  the  ministry  of  the  Establish- 
ment and  in  the  dissenting  churches.  Never  perhaps 
in  English  history  has  there  been  a  more  brilliant 
group  of  intellectual  defenders  of  historic  and  rational 
Christianity  than  in  the  years  that  immediately 
preceded  Wesley's  activity.  The  names  of  Arch- 
deacon Daniel  Waterland,  Bishop  George  Berkeley, 
and  Bishop  Joseph  Butler,  to  mention  no  others,  must 
always  shine  in  the  story  of  the  earlier  decades  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Nor  was  earnest  piety  without 
its  representatives.  From  the  High-churchman,  Wil- 
liam Law,  to  the  Congregational  hymn-writer,  Isaac 
Watts,  no  section  of  religious  England  was  without 
men  of  warm-hearted  religious  feeling.  But  the  pre- 
vailing type  of  preaching  was  that  of  the  passionless 
essay  on  moral  duties,  and  the  heated  controversies 
of  the  seventeenth  century  had  led  to  a  widespread 
reaction  which  dreaded  anything  of  "enthusiasm," 
or,  as  we  should  say,  fanaticism,  in  the  pulpit 
or  in  conduct.  Preaching  was  intellectual  and  un- 
stimulating.  Appeals  to  the  fundamental  religious 
feelings  were  exceedingly  rare,  and  were  regarded  as 
scarcely  fitting. 

It  was  high  time  that  a  new  and  effective  presenta- 
tion of  the  gospel  should  be  made,  that  the  neglected 
emotional  nature  of  men  should  be  roused  to  religious 
activity,  and  the  masses  outside  the  churches  should 
be  sought.  That  England  was  regenerated  spiritu- 
ally and  awakened  as  never  before,  was,  humanly 


324     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

speaking,  the  work  of  two  men  of  transcendent 
abilities,  John  Wesley,  the  organizer  of  Methodism, 
and  George  Whitefield,  the  greatest  preacher  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

John  Wesley  was  born  in  Epworth,  Lincolnshire, 
where  his  father,  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  was  rector, 
on  June  17,  1703.^  His  father  was  a  hard-working, 
earnest  head  of  a  rather  remote  country  parish.  His 
mother,  Susannah  (Annesley),  was  a  woman  of 
unusual  talents,  intellectual  powers,  and  spiritual 
gifts,  from  whom  the  son  drew  much  of  what  he  after- 
ward became.  In  a  household  of  nineteen  children, 
even  though  only  ten  survived  the  perils  of  infancy, 
the  financial  problem  was  always  a  pressing  one; 
but  the  brothers  and  sisters  grew  up  under  their 
mother's  instruction,  with  more  than  usual  cultiva- 
tion of  manner  as  well  as  of  mind,  and  in  spite  of  a 
plainness  of  speech  one  toward  another  which  almost 
savored  of  bluntness,  with  great  mutual  affection. 
One  event  of  John's  boyhood  made  an  indelible 
impression  on  his  mind.  He  was  rescued,  at  the 
last  moment,  from  the  fire  that  destroyed  the  rec- 
tory, and  it  seemed  to  him  that  he  was  literally  "a 
brand  plucked  from  the  burning."  A  sense  of  the 
immediacy  of  divine  providence  was  characteristic 
of  the  boy  from  his  earliest  childhood. 

When  a  little  more  than  ten,  Wesley  entered  the 

I  "  Old  style. "  In  the  reformed  dating  now  in  use  the  day 
would  be  June  28. 


JOHN  WESLEY  325 

famous  Charterhouse  School  in  London,  and  thence 
passed,  at  seventeen,  to  the  University  of  Oxford. 
In  both  he  was  distinguished  for  scholarship,  but  the 
warm  piety  of  his  early  home  life  sank  to  a  low  level. 
Still,  it  was  not  extinguished;  and  in  September, 
1725,  he  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  of  the  Church 
of  England.  He  now  conscientiously  read  good 
books,  and  was  specially  impressed  by  William  Law's 
Serious  Call,^  which  came  into  his  hands  soon  after 
he  was  chosen  a  fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 
As  Wesley  himself  said,  it  convinced  him  "  more  than 
ever  of  the  impossibility  of  being  half  a  Christian, 
and  [he]  determined  to  be  all  devoted  to  God." 
Law's  writings  may  be  called  the  seed  from  which 
early  Methodism  sprang. 

Wesley  now  entered  on  the  active  ministry.  From 
August,  1727,  to  November,  1729,  he  served  as  his 
father's  curate  in  the  parish  of  his  boyhood.  In  the 
month  last  mentioned  he  returned  to  Oxford  to 
assume  the  duties  of  his  fellowship.  Meanwhile,  in 
his  absence  from  Oxford,  important  events  had  taken 
place  there.  Charles  Wesley,  his  younger  brother, 
who  was  to  be  the  poet  of  Methodism,  then  a  student 
in  Oxford,  had  gathered  a  few  like-minded  associates 
into  a  little  club,  for  the  cultivation  of  the  Christian 
life.     They  were  "High-churchmen"  in  their  sym- 

I  A  Serious  Call  to  a  Holy  Life,  published  in  1728.  Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson  described  it  as  "the  finest  piece  of  hortatory 
theology  in  any  language. " 


326    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

pathies,  and  they  ordered  their  Hves  by  strict  rule, 
partaking  of  the  sacraments,  visiting  prisoners,  fast- 
ing, and  seeking  mutual  edification.  This  earnest- 
ness and  regularity  aroused  the  derision  of  the 
student  body,  and  soon  led  to  the  nickname,  "  Meth- 
odists."^ Of  this  fellowship  John  Wesley  became 
the  leader  on  his  return  to  Oxford  in  1729.  George 
Whitefield  joined  the  little  company  in  1735. 

Though  Oxford  was  thus  the  cradle  of  Methodism, 
none  of  its  leaders  was  destined  to  make  that  seat 
of  learning  his  home.  In  1735,  John  and  Charles 
Wesley  sailed  for  Georgia,  then  a  colony  planned 
largely  on  a  philanthropic  basis  by  James  Edward 
Oglethorpe.  Here  John  Wesley  remained  till  late 
in  1737.  It  was  not  a  pleasant  experience.  Wesley 
was  a  High-churchman.  His  views  were  strict  and 
censorious;  and  his  refusal  to  administer  the  com- 
munion to  Miss  Sophy  Hopkey,  after  she  had  become 
Mrs.  Williamson,  was  unfortunate  in  view  of  the 
courtship  that  had  existed  between  them  before  that 
lady's  marriage.  Wesley,  always  a  keen  judge  of 
men,  was  not  marked  by  skill  in  insight  into  feminine 
character.  His  Georgia  mission  was  practically  a 
failure.  For  his  own  spiritual  development  it  was, 
however,  of  the  highest  importance.  On  the  voyage 
out  and  in  Georgia  he  was  thrown  much  into  the 
company  of  Moravians,  and  was  convinced  that  they 

I  The  name  was  not  newly  invented.  See,  on  its  earlier  use, 
Tyerman,  Life  and  Times  oj  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  I,  67. 


JOHN  WESLEY  327 

had  a  depth  of  religious  experience  which  he  had  not 
yet  acquired.  Returned  to  London,  he  imme- 
diately sought  out  the  Moravians,  and  was  greatly 
influenced  by  one  of  their  leaders  in  that  city,  Peter 
Bohler.  He  attended  the  Moravian  meetings,  and 
in  one  of  them,  on  May  24,  1738,  had  the  remarkable 
experience  which  he  ever  after  viewed  as  his  "con- 
version." While  Luther's  preface  to  his  commen- 
tary on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was  being  read, 
Wesley  records:  "I  felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed. 
I  felt  I  did  trust  in  Christ,  Christ  alone,  for  salvation; 
and  an  assurance  was  given  me  that  he  had  taken 
away  my  sins,  even  mine."^  A  similar  experience 
had  come  to  Charles  Wesley  three  days  before,  and 
to  Whitefield  a  little  earlier. 

Wesley  was  a  man  of  prompt  action.  He  would 
know  more  of  the  Moravians,  and  early  in  June  he 
started  for  Germany  to  meet  Zinzendorf  and  visit 
Herrnhut.  He  was  greatly  impressed  with  the  eager 
and  emotional  piety  that  he  witnessed.  His  debt 
to  Moravian  influences  was  permanent.  But  Wes- 
ley's good  sense  kept  him  from  sympathy  with  the 
more  extravagant  features  of  early  Moravianism, 
and,  in  particular,  from  the  adoption  of  the  Moravian 
plan  of  separate  towns.  Christians  should  not  with- 
draw from  the  world,  but  work  in  it,  where  its  temp- 
tations were  the  strongest  and  the  powers  of  evil  most 
firmly  intrenched. 

I  John  Wesley's  Journal,  abridged  edition  (Cincinnati,  1903), 
P-Si- 


328     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Wesley's  return  from  Germany  was  followed  by 
endeavors  to  preach  the  gospel  as  he  now  understood 
it,  in  which  Whitefield  fully  shared.  The  churches, 
however,  were  generally,  though  not  always,  closed 
to  them  as  fanatics  by  the  rectors  in  charge;  and, 
therefore,  in  February,  1739,  Whitefield  began 
preaching  in  the  fields.  Such  an  innovation  dis- 
tressed Wesley's  High-churchmanship ;  but  he  felt 
the  gospel  must  be  preached,  and,  in  April  following, 
he  adopted  the  same  method  of  reaching  the  people. 
Both  were  great  preachers,  but  in  effective  popular 
address  Whitefield  was  undoubtedly  the  greater. 
Such  preaching  England  had  not  heard  for  years. 
Intense,  emotional,  calHng  for  immediate,  conscious 
conversion,  it  pressed  the  message  on  the  attention 
of  men  for  whom  the  ordinary  discourses  of  the  time 
had  little  attraction.  It  appealed  to  the  heart.  It 
depicted  the  danger  of  neglect  of  Christ  and  the 
terrors  of  the  hereafter  in  lurid  vividness;  but  it 
urged  none  the  less  clearly  the  forgiving  grace  of  God, 
and  the  possibilities  of  full  consecration  to  his  service. 
Its  emotional  effectiveness  was  extreme.  In  the 
earher  years  both  of  Whitefield's  and  of  Wesley's 
preaching,  faintings,  hysterics,  and  outcries  of  dis- 
tress were  not  uncommon  accompaniments  of  the 
sermons;  but  the  number  profoundly  and  perma- 
nently awakened  to  the  Christian  hope  was  very  great. 
The  preachers  encountered  ridicule,  calumny,  and 
mob  violence  of  all  kinds;  but  they  made  themselves 


JOHN  WESLEY  329 

heard,  and  it  was  a  ministry  largely  to  the  unchurched 
and  neglected  that  soon  won  abundant  fruitage. 

This  preaching  was  notably  successful  in  Bristol 
and  its  vicinity,  and  there,  in  1739,  Wesley  began  the 
erection  of  the  first  Methodist  place  of  worship — a 
task  involving  great  and  unanticipated  financial  re- 
sponsibilities. The  titles  of  these  "chapels,"  as  they 
were  called,  since  the  name  "church"  was  popu- 
larly used  for  the  edifices  of  the  English  Establish- 
ment, were  long  generally  vested  in  Wesley  himself. 
The  same  year,  1739,  the  "Foundry"  was  made  the 
center  of  Methodist  meetings  in  London.  The 
chapels  soon  became  very  numerous;  and  a  device 
originally  adopted  in  1742,  as  a  means  of  raising  the 
heavy  debt  on  that  in  Bristol,  not  only  proved  finan- 
cially effective,  but  was  soon  made  one  of  the  chief 
spiritual  agencies  of  Methodism.  The  congregation 
was  composed  chiefly  of  the  poor.  It  was  divided 
into  groups  of  twelve,  each  member  of  which  was 
pledged  to  give  a  penny  a  week  to  a  collector.  Wes- 
ley's keen  organizing  genius  saw  at  once  that  the 
collector  might  wisely  become  the  spiritual  super- 
visor of  his  group,  and  that  these  bands  of  associates 
might  aid  each  other's  religious  life  by  testimony  as 
to  their  experiences  and  temptations.  The  result 
was  the  "class-meeting,"  which  was  at  once  ex- 
tended to  all  Methodism,  and  has  proved  one  of  its 
most  useful  features.' 

I  Journal,  op.  cit.,  pp.  123,  124;  Tyerman,  I,  377-80. 


330    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Wesley  had  at  first  built  his  work  largely  on  the 
basis  of  "religious  societies,"  which  had  existed  for 
at  least  half  a  century  before  his  active  labors  began 
as  voluntary  associations  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
religious  life.  These  had  afforded  a  ready  door  for 
Moravianism;  and  the  society  in  London  with  which 
Wesley  was  chiefly  associated  was  essentially  a  Mora- 
vian body.  But  Wesley  came  to  feel  justly  that 
English  Moravianism  was  marked  by  extravagances, 
while  the  London  Moravians  in  turn  viewed  him 
as  not  acceptable  to  themselves.  The  result  was 
that,  on  July  23,  1740,  the  "United  Society"  met 
in  London  as  a  distinctly  Methodist  body,  and  from 
that  event  organized  Methodism  may  be  dated.' 

Meanwhile  the  work  was  growing  with  great  rapid- 
ity, and  the  groups  of  disciples  required  preachers 
and  leaders.  Wesley's  High-church manship  revolted 
against  the  employment  of  any  but  ordained  men; 
but  few  clergymen  were  sympathetic,  and  he  soon 
saw  that  if  his  work  was  to  be  extended  he  must  use 
the  aid  of  laymen.  Begun  in  one  instance  as  early 
as  1739,  by  1 741  lay  preachers  had  become  a  regular 
and  greatly  employed  feature  of  Methodism.  At 
the  first  Wesley  personally  superintended  all  stations 
and  directed  the  preachers  in  them;  but  the  task  soon 
became   physically    impossible.     Unable   to   go   to 

I  Journal,  op.  ciL,  p.  loo;  Tyerman,  I,  309,  310.  Wesley 
traced  the  beginnings  of  the  "United  Society"  to  a  rather  informal 
gathering  for  prayer  and  conference  begun  in  London  in  Decem- 
ber, 1739.     See  Tyerman,  I,  278. 


JOHN  WESLEY  331 

them  all,  he,  therefore,  in  1744,  began  the  practice 
of  having  the  preachers  come  to  him.  The  result 
was  the  annual  "  Conference,"^  ultimately  to  become 
the  cornerstone  of  the  governmental  system  of 
Methodism.  These  preachers  were  uneducated  for 
the  most  part,  and  Wesley  saw  that,  though  earnest, 
their  usefulness  in  a  field  was  likely  to  be  speedily 
exhausted.  Many  stations  also  were  small,  and  several 
could  profitably  be  served  in  succession  by  the  same 
speaker.  He  therefore  changed  their  place  of  serv- 
ice frequently,  and  sent  the  more  gifted  of  them  on 
wide-extended  missionary  tours.  The  result  was 
"itinerancy."  Neighboring  preaching  stations  were 
grouped  in  "circuits,"  to  which  these  evangelists  as 
well  as  the  abler  Methodist  leaders  ministered  in 
rotation.  Thus,  by  1746,  Wesley  had  mapped  out 
the  main  features  of  Methodism.  It  was  no  creation 
of  a  moment;  but  a  growth,  a  marvelous  adjustment 
of  means  to  ends;  and  the  result  was  such  a  presenta- 
tion of  the  gospel  to  the  common  people  as  England 
had  never  before  witnessed. 

Wesley  himself  was  the  most  indefatigable  of 
workers.  Of  middle  height,  and  slender  frame,  he 
was  of  iron  endurance.  Ordinarily  he  rose  at  four 
in  the  morning,  and  his  waking  hours  were  filled  with 
restless  activities.  Without  serious  home  cares,  for 
his  marriage  in  1751,  with  a  widow,  Mrs.  Vazeille, 
was  uncongenial  and  unfortunate,  he  was  able  to 

I  Tyerman,  I,  441-48. 


332     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

devote  himself  wholly  to  his  task.  For  fifty  years  he 
preached  on  the  average  of  five  hundred  times 
annually.  In  that  half-century  he  rode  no  less  than 
250,000  miles  on  horseback.  He  supervised  all  the 
details  of  the  Methodist  movement,  appointed  preach- 
ers, settled  disputes,  and  yet  found  time  to  be  busy 
constantly  with  his  pen.  His  courage  was  unshakable. 
No  mob-violence  affrighted  him,  no  opposition  could 
thwart  his  purpose.  His  faults  were  the  defects  of 
such  a  temperament.  He  was  occasionally  over 
self-reliant.  He  inclined  to  be  dictatorial.  In  con- 
troversy he  was  sometimes  contemptuous.  He  was 
undoubtedly  superstitious,  holding  to  the  reality  of 
witchcraft,  and  deciding  actions  of  importance  by  lot, 
or  by  the  first  verse  of  Scripture  on  which  his  eyes 
might  chance  to  fall.  But  his  virtues  far  outweighed 
his  faults.  In  singleness  of  aim,  sincerity  of  conse- 
cration, and  unselfish  devotion  to  his  cause  he  had 
not  a  superior  in  Christian  history. 

Wesley's  humanitarian  sympathies  were  wide.  He 
detested  slavery;  and  described  the  slave-trade  in 
1772  as  "that  execrable  sum  of  all  villainies."^  He 
favored  Sunday  schools  and  endeavored  to  extend 
their  use.  He  weLomed  the  work  of  John  Howard 
for  prison  and  hospital  reform.  Wesley  was  not  a 
constructive  theologian;  though  in  middle  life  he 
engaged  much  in  theological  controversy,  especially 
with  Calvinists,  whose  system  he  regarded  as  funda- 

»  Tyerman,  III,  114. 


JOHN  WESLEY  333 

mentally  immoral.  His  early  companion,  White- 
field,  was  one  of  those  from  whom  this  was  a  cause 
of  separation  for  a  time.  He  regarded  a  conscious 
"conversion"  as  the  normal  means  of  entrance  on 
the  Christian  life;  and  beheved  Christian  perfection 
obtainable  by  the  disciple,  so  that,  though  a  man  is 
still  liable  to  ignorance  and  error  and  needs  Christ's 
constant  forgiveness,  yet  "  no  wrong  temper  remains 
in  the  soul,  and  all  thoughts,  words,  and  actions  are 
governed  by  pure  love."^  In  its  theology  he  and 
his  movement  were  reactionary,  reproducing  the 
thoughts  of  an  earlier  Protestantism  rather  than  the 
views  which  were  then  beginning  to  be  entertained 
and  which  have  since  profoundly  and  widely  modi- 
fied conceptions  of  Christian  truth;  but  in  his  evan- 
gelic and  humanitarian  enthusiasm  he  was  a  leader 
in  the  transformation  of  his  age  and  a  prophet  of  the 
future. 

Wesley  had  no  wish  to  break  with  the  Church  of 
England,  though  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  his  move- 
ment could  have  been  adjusted  to  it  without  material 
alterations  in  its  constitution  and  worship.  He 
long  called  his  congregations  simply  "societies,"  and 
would  suffer  none  but  episcopally  ordained  men  to 
administer  the  sacraments.  The  breach  came  in 
1784,  in  consequence  of  the  American  Revolution. 
Methodism  had  been  introduced  into  the  American 
colonies,  in  New  York  City,  by  immigrants  under 

I  Ibid.,  II,  346. 


334    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  spiritual  leadership  of  Philip  Embury,  in  1766. 
The  work  grew  rapidly.  In  1773,  the  first  American 
Methodist  ''Conference"  was  held  in  Philadelphia. 
But  the  American  Methodists  were  without  ordained 
leaders,  and  the  separation  of  the  United  States  from 
the  mother  country  made  the  release  of  American 
Methodism  from  British  control  desirable.  Accord- 
ingly, in  1780,  Wesley  applied  to  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don to  ordain  a  minister  for  America.  The  candi- 
date was  refused,  and,  after  mature  deliberation, 
four  years  later,  Wesley  took  the  matter  into  his  own 
hands.  In  September,  1784,  in  Bristol,  he  himself 
ordained  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Vasey 
for  the  American  ministry,  and  consecrated  Rev. 
Thomas  Coke,  already  a  priest  of  the  church  of 
England,  as  "superintendent"  for  the  same  work — 
a  title  which  was  soon  transformed  in  America, 
apparently  by  Coke  himself,  into  that  of  "bishop."^ 
A  year  later,  in  a  similar  way,  Wesley  ordained  min- 
isters for  Scotland;  and  ultimately  for  service  in 
England  itself.  This  was  a  complete  breach  with 
the  Establishment.  Methodism  was  now  provided 
with  its  own  self-perpetuating  ministry. 

One  further  act  of  1784  completed  the  develop- 
ment of  Methodism  as  an  independent  communion. 
In  that  eventful  year,  by  a  "Deed  of  Declaration" 
executed  by  Wesley  and  recorded  in  the  Court  of 
Chancery  of  Great  Britain,  the  "Conference"  was 

I  Tyerman,  III,  331-34,  426-41. 


JOHN  WESLEY  335 

given  full  legal  status,  its  membership  defined,  and 
its  authority  to  appoint,  control,  and  expel  preachers 
asserted.  In  its  keeping  the  determination  of  the 
ministers  of  the  Methodist  chapels,  then  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty-nine  in  number,  was  placed.  This 
was  a  resignation,  freely  made,  by  Wesley  himself, 
to  the  representatives  of  the  communion  he  had 
founded,  of  the  control  over  it  which  he  had  thus 
far  exercised.  It  was  a  wise  and  far-seeing  act. 
It  made  Methodism  seLf-goveming  and  self-perpetu- 
ating, and  it  is  not  the  least  evidence  of  Wesley's 
unselfishness  and  organizing  skill.  The  master  who 
had  created  and  governed  knew  when  to  release  his 
control. 

Wesley  continued  his  work  in  remarkable  vigor  to 
the  end  of  his  long  life.  Of  his  early  associates, 
Whitefield  died  in  1770,  and  Charles  Wesley  in  1788. 
Till  the  summer  of  1789  he  found  his  strength  of 
body  scarcely  abated.  Till  a  few  days  before  his 
death  he  continued  preaching,  and  his  long  itinerat- 
ing journeys  lasted  almost  to  the  end.  He  died  in 
London,  March  2,  1791,  having  nearly  reached  the 
age  of  eighty-eight.  It  was  in  the  fulness  of  an 
accomplished  work  that  places  him  first  among  Eng- 
lish-speaking Christian  leaders.  No  other  of  his 
race  has  been  so  extensive  or  so  abiding  in  his  influ- 
ence for  good. 

At  Wesley's  death  Methodism  in  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  numbered  214  circuits,  507 


ZZ^     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

preachers,  and  119,735  members.  In  the  period 
which  has  since  elapsed  it  has  steadily  and  rapidly 
advanced,  and  nowhere  so  conspicuously  as  in 
America.  It  now  counts  as  of  its  ministry  not  less 
than  50,596  ordained  men,  besides  its  host  of  lay- 
preachers,  and  reckons  its  membership  at  8,537,874. 
But  organized  Methodism,  great  as  it  was  and  is,  is 
only  a  part  of  the  results  of  the  Methodist  movement. 
It  revived  the  religious  life  of  England.  It  formed 
the  Christianity  of  a  large  part  of  America.  It 
stimulated  philanthropy,  encouraged  missions,  and 
remade  the  Christian  ideals  of  a  large  part  of  the 
English-speaking  peoples.  In  a  measure  granted 
to  no  other  of  his  nationality  and  speech  Wesley 
realized  his  ideal:  ''I  look  upon  all  the  world  as  my 
parish." 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  was  the  effect  of  the  decline  of  the  Puritan  con- 
troversy on  the  religious  life  of  England  ?  What  was  Deism  ? 
What  the  state  of  the  higher  classes  ? 

2.  What  was  the  condition  of  the  lower  classes?  Were 
there  able  men  in  the  ministry?  Why  was  their  work  rela- 
tively inefficient  ? 

3.  When  and  where  was  Wesley  bom?  What  was  his 
parentage  and  education?    What  his  abilities  as  a  scholar? 

4.  What  books  influenced  Wesley  religiously?  How  did 
Methodism  begin  in  Oxford?  Who  were  the  leaders  of  the 
club  ?    How  was  it  regarded  by  the  students  generally  ? 

5.  What  can  be  said  of  Wesley's  sojourn  in  America? 
Under  what  influences  did  he  come  ?  Why  were  they  of  value 
to  him? 


JOHN  WESLEY  337 

6.  What  were  the  time  and  circumstances  of  Wesley's 
"conversion"?  What  journey  immediately  followed  it? 
Why? 

7.  What  were  the  characteristics  of  Wesley's  and  White- 
field's  preaching  ?     How  was  it  received  ? 

8.  Where  did  Wesley  establish  his  first  "chapels"  ?  What 
was  the  origin  of  the  "class-meeting"?  How  came  Wesley 
to  separate  from  the  Moravians  ? 

9.  Why  did  Wesley  adopt  lay-preaching,  itinerancy,  and 
circuits?  What  was  the  origin  of  the  "Conference"  ?  What 
Wesley's  authority  over  the  Methodist  movement? 

10.  What  were  some  of  Wesley's  personal  characteristics  ? 
His  humanitarian  zeal  ?     His  theology  ? 

11.  How  did  Wesley  come  to  ordain  ministers?  Signifi- 
cance of  the  step  ?     When  did  American  Methodism  begin  ? 

12.  How  and  when  did  Wesley  resign  his  authority  to  the 
"Conference" ?    The  nature  and  effects  of  their  action? 

13.  Wesley's  death?  The  greatness  of  his  work?  Its 
significance  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

John  Wesley s  Journal,  abridged  edition  (Cincinnati,  1903). 
Caleb  T.  Winchester,  The  Life  of  John  Wesley  (New  York, 

1906). 
W.  H.  Fitchett,  Wesley  and  His  Century  (London,  1906). 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS 


XIX 
JONATHAN  EDWARDS 

The  New  England  colonies  were  founded  under 
strong  religious  impulse.  Whatever  other  factors 
entered  into  the  determination  of  their  settlers  to 
cross  the  Atlantic,  religion  had  undoubtedly  the 
first  place  in  forming  their  decision.  To  a  degree 
probably  unequaled  in  other  European  colonization, 
religion  was  a  universal  interest  among  these  immi- 
grants. Their  faith,  like  that  of  English  Puritanism 
from  which  they  sprang,  was  of  the  Calvinistic  type, 
strongly  insistent  on  the  sovereignty  of  God,  the  duty 
of  entire  obedience  to  his  will,  the  helplessness  of  man 
to  do  right  without  God's  transforming  grace,  and 
the  natural  fruitage  of  that  grace  in  strong,  conscien- 
tious character.  Like  the  Puritans  generally,  they 
believed  that  the  people  should  have  some  share  in 
the  government  of  church  and  state;  and  they  carried 
this  principle  much  farther  than  most  Puritans,  with 
resultant  Congregationalism  in  church  government, 
and  a  large  degree  of  democracy  in  civil  institutions. 

The  intense  rehgious  fervor  of  the  immigrants  was 
not  inherited,  however,  in  its  fulness  by  their  children. 
In  large  measure  such  a  result  was  inevitable.  The 
fijst  generation  had  been  picked  men  and  women  in 
whom  rehgion  had  been  largely  the  principle  of  selec- 
341 


342     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

tion.  Their  children  represented  more  nearly  the  aver- 
age type  of  the  English  race.  Certain  special  causes 
contributed,  however,  to  the  same  decline.  The 
isolation  of  the  settlements  on  the  edge  of  a  new  con- 
tinent, the  constant  struggle  with  the  wilderness,  and 
the  presence  of  savage  foes,  were  factors  tending  to 
weaken  the  ascendency  of  spiritual  interests  and  to 
lower  the  high  ideal  of  life.  These  were  combated, 
with  considerable  success,  by  a  devoted  ministry 
and  by  educational  institutions  which  had  their 
crown  in  the  founding  of  Harvard  in  1636,  and  of 
Yale  in  1701;  but  it  was  nevertheless  true  that  the 
New  England  of  the  first  third  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury had  greatly  declined  in  religious  fervor  from  the 
New  England  of  the  founders  a  century  earlier.  From 
that  state  of  comparative  lethargy  the  land  was  to  be 
aroused  by  religious  revivals,  culminating  in  the 
"  Great  Awakening"  of  1740-42,  and  in  those  revivals 
one  of  the  foremost  figures  was  to  be  that  of  the  man 
who  was  also  the  ablest  theologian  and  most  powerful 
thinker  that  colonial  New  England  produced,  Jona- 
than Edwards.  In  him  are  to  be  seen  the  qualities  of 
his  age  and  country  in  their  most  characteristic,  and 
at  the  same  time  in  their  noblest,  development. 

Jonathan  Edwards  was  born  in  what  is  now  South 
Windsor,  Connecticut,  on  October  5,  1703,  the  same 
year  that  witnessed  the  birth  of  John  Wesley.  His 
father,  Timothy  Edwards,  was  pastor  of  the  church 
in  that  parish,  and  a  man  of  marked  intellectual 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  343 

abilities;  his  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Solomon 
Stoddard,  the  distinguished  minister  of  Northampton, 
Massachusetts.  He  was  the  only  son  among  eleven 
children.  By  heredity  and  training  he  was  a  typical 
representative  of  that  class  of  conspicuous  leader- 
ship in  colonial  New  England  which  sought  service 
in  the  Christian  ministry.  His  early  education  was 
in  his  father's  study;  but  he  developed,  even  in  boy- 
hood, an  innate  keenness  of  observation  of  the  ways 
of  nature  and  a  capacity  for  intelligent  reasoning  that 
were  prophetic  of  his  maturer  powers.  When  not 
quite  thirteen  years  old,  in  17 16,  he  entered  Yale 
College.  That  recently  founded  seat  of  learning 
had  as  yet  no  certain  home,  and  much  of  Edwards' 
course  was  spent  in  Wethersfield;  but  before  its 
close  the  college  had  ceased  wandering,  and  in  New 
Haven  he  graduated,  in  1720,  at  the  head  of  his  class. 
For  the  next  two  years  he  remained  at  the  college 
engaged  in  further  study.  In  these  student  days  he 
not  only  read  such  philosophical  works  as  he  could 
procure,  but  began  to  formulate  ideas  of  his  own 
which  show  that  had  he  been  later  less  absorbed  in 
theology,  he  might  have  been  one  of  the  greatest  of 
the  philosophers  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Always  religious  by  nature,  Edwards,  not  far  from 
the  time  of  his  graduation,  had  an  experience  resem- 
bling that  of  Wesley,  though  even  more  mystical  in 
form  than  the  latter's  *' conversion."  As  he  was 
reading  the  Pauline  ascription:  "Now  unto  the  King 


344     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

eternal,  immortal,  invisible,  the  only  wise  God,  be 
honor  and  glory  for  ever  and  ever,  Amen,"'  there 
came  into  his  soul ''  a  sense  of  the  glory  of  the  Divine 
Being."  He  thought:  "How  excellent  a  Being  that 
was,  and  how  happy  [he]  should  be  if  [he]  might  enjoy 
that  God  ....  and  be  as  it  were  swallowed  up  in 
Him  forever."^  This  mystical  sense  of  the  presence 
and  reahty  of  God  and  of  the  possibility  of  union  of 
soul  with  him  was  to  Edwards  ever  after  the  guiding 
principle  of  his  religious  life.  God  was  henceforth 
not  merely  the  most  real  of  beings,  but  the  dearest 
object  of  devotion.  A  Christian  life  without  outgo- 
ing affection  toward  God  and  cheerful  and  acquies- 
cent submission  to  all  God's  dealings  with  men  was 
henceforth  inconceivable  for  him.  This  led  him  to 
hearty  acceptance  of  those  Calvinistic  doctrines  of 
divine  sovereignty  which  had  heretofore  seemed 
unpalatable  to  him;  and  the  Calvinistic  system,  in 
its  essential  features,  was  to  have  in  him  its  ablest 
American  exponent. 

A  few  months  of  preaching  in  New  York  City, 
in  1722  and  1723,  ripened  the  youthful  Edwards' 
spiritual  nature  by  pastoral  experience.  To  this 
period,  when  not  yet  twenty  years  old,  belong  his 
remarkable  series  of  resolutions,  of  which  one  of  the 
most  characteristic  is:   "Never  to  do  any  manner  of 

1  I  Tim.  1 :  17. 

2  Edwards'  own  narrative,  in  S.  E.  Dwight,  Th3  Life  0} 
President  Edwards  (New  York,  1830),  p.  60. 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  345 

thing,  whether  in  soul  or  body,  less  or  more,  but 
what  tends  to  the  glory  of  God,  nor  be,  nor  suffer  it, 
if  I  can  possibly  avoid  it."'  His  services  were  now 
sought  by  several  churches;  but,  from  1724  to  1726, 
he  filled  with  much  ability  a  tutorship  in  Yale  Col- 
lege. Probably  one  inducing  cause  of  his  return  to 
New  Haven  was  the  residence  in  that  town  of  the 
remarkable  woman  whom  he  was  to  marry  on  July 
28,  1727 — Sarah  Pierpont,  a  daughter  of  Rev.  James 
Pierpont,  the  New  Haven  pastor  from  1685  to  17 14. 
She  was  indeed  well  worthy  of  his  regard,  and  the 
union  thus  instituted  was  to  be  of  the  happiest.  With 
unusual  susceptibility  to  deep  religious  emotion,  Mrs. 
Edwards  combined  executive  force,  social  charm, 
and  sweet,  womanly  leadership.  A  few  months 
prior  to  this  marriage  Edwards  accepted  a  call  to 
become  colleague  pastor  with  his  grandfather, 
Solomon  Stoddard,  in  the  care  of  the  church  in 
Northampton,  Massachusetts.  To  this  charge  he 
was  ordained  on  February  15,  1727,  and  the  death 
of  Stoddard  two  years  later  left  the  pastorate  wholly 
to  him. 

Edwards  was  at  once  marked  as  a  preacher  of 
power.  As  in  England  before  the  work  of  Wesley 
and  Whitefield,  the  characteristic  preaching  of  the 
time  was  unemotional  and  Httle  calculated  to  arouse 
strenuous  feeling.  Edwards'  theologic  position  and 
his  type  of  preaching  were  largely  a  return  to  those 

I  In  full,  Dwight,  op.  cit.,  pp.  68-73. 


346     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

characteristic  of  the  founders  of  New  England.  In 
marked  contrast  to  Wesley,  his  doctrine  was  intensely 
Calvinistic.  The  intellectual  note  was  more  evident 
than  in  the  discourses  of  the  great  English  evangelist. 
But,  like  Wesley,  Edwards  appealed  powerfully  to 
the  emotions,  though  more  by  the  matter  of  his 
message  than  by  its  form.  In  sermons  of  tremen- 
dous logical  power,  and  often  of  vivid,  sometimes 
lurid,  imagery,  he  set  forth  God's  absolute  sovereign 
right  to  deal  with  men  either  in  salvation  or  damna- 
tion, the  joys  of  the  Christian  life,  and  the  fearful 
terrors  which  he  held  to  be  the  certain  lot  of  the 
wicked.  Such  preaching  had  powerful  effect.  In 
December,  1734,  a  "revival,"  lasting  some  months, 
began  in  Northampton,  that  soon  attracted  public 
interest  not  merely  in  America  but  in  Great 
Britain.^ 

Naturally  one  whose  own  ministry  was  so  evangel- 
istic welcomed  George  Whitefield  when  that  greatest 
of  English  preachers  made  his  meteoric  tour  of  New 
England  in  1740.  It  seemed  as  if  the  successes  of 
his  own  Northampton  ministry  were  now  repeated  on 
a  scale  commensurate  with  the  English-speaking 
colonies.  Wherever  Whitefield  went  his  congrega- 
tions were  as  wax  in  his  hands.  Men  cried  out  and 
women  fainted.     The  work  thus  begun  was  taken  up 

I  At  the  instance  of  Rev.  Drs.  Isaac  Watts  and  John  Guyse, 
Edwards  prepared  an  account,  to  be  found  in  any  edition  of  his 
Works,  and  generally  known  as  the  Narrative  of  Surprising  Con- 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  347 

by  many  evangelists,  among  whom  Edwards  himself 
was  conspicuous,  and  the  period  of  tremendous 
religious  upheaval  from  1740  to  1742  is  known  as 
the  "Great  Awakening."  To  Edwards  it  seemed 
at  first  the  dawn  of  the  millennial  age.  But,  intense 
as  it  was  for  the  time  being,  the  movement  soon  spent 
its  force,  and  it  left  behind  a  wake  of  division  and 
controversy  as  to  its  real  value.  In  Edwards  the 
revival  had  a  vigorous  defender,  though  he  was  not 
blind  to  its  extravagances;  and  after  it  had  passed, 
he  wrote,  in  1746,  in  calm  retrospect,  his  noble 
Treatise  Concerning  Religious  Affections,  in  which 
he  attempted  to  answer  the  question,  "What  is  the 
nature  of  true  religion?"  To  Edwards'  thinking 
nothing  deserves  the  name  of  religion  that  falls  short 
of  an  absolute  change  of  disposition,  wrought  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  showing  itself  in  unselfish  love  for 
divine  things  because  they  are  holy,  in  meekness, 
tenderness  of  heart,  and  a  life  of  Christian  conduct 
toward  one's  fellow-men. 

These  experiences  produced  one  change  of  impor- 
tance in  Edwards'  own  thinking.  The  church  of 
which  he  was  pastor  had  so  far  departed,  under  his 
grandfather's  leadership,  from  original  New  England 
practice,  as  to  admit  all  serious-minded  seekers, 
whether  consciously  Christians  or  not,  to  the  Lord's 
Supper.  Edwards  was  now  convinced  of  the  wrong- 
fulness of  the  custom,  and  not  only  refused  further 
admissions   on   such   terms,   but   wrote  powerfully 


348     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

against  it  in  his  Humble  Inquiry  of  1749.^  This 
change  of  practice,  and  certain  mismanaged  cases 
of  discipHne,  turned  his  congregation  against  him. 
Great  as  he  was  as  a  thinker  and  a  preacher,  Edwards 
had  httle  skill  in  handling  men.  The  result  was  a 
distressing  dispute,  issuing  in  his  dismissal  from  the 
Northampton  pastorate  in  June,  1750. 

Driven  from  his  parish,  at  the  age  of  forty-seven, 
with  a  family  of  ten  children,  he  ultimately  found 
employment  in  1751,  in  the  little  frontier  village  of 
Stockbridge,  Massachusetts,  as  pastor  of  its  church 
and  as  the  missionary  of  the  EngHsh  "  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  in  New  England"  to  the 
Housatonic  Indians  there  settled.  To  him  the 
change  was  in  many  ways  an  exile,  but  it  gave  him 
the  relative  leisure  and  opportunity  to  write  the  works 
on  which  his  fame  as  a  theologian  and  as  a  philos- 
opher rests.  To  Edwards  the  years  in  Stockbridge 
were  his  intellectual  harvest  time. 

Of  Edwards'  four  treatises,  written  in  this  event- 
ful period,  that  on  Freedom  of  Will,'  pubhshed  in 
1754,  is  the  most  famous,  though  not  perhaps  the 
most  influential.     It  was  reared  as  a  bulwark  in 

1  An  Humble  Inquiry  into  the  Rules  of  the  Word  0}  God, 
Concerning  the  Qualification  Requisite  to  a  Compleat  Standing  and 
Full  Communion  in  the  Visible  Christian  Church  (Boston,  1749). 

2  A  Careful  and  Strict  Enquiry  into  the  Modern  Prevailing 
Notions  of  That  Freedom  of  Will  Which  Is  Supposed  to  Be  Essen- 
tial to  Moral  Agency,  Vertue  and  Vice,  Reward  and  Punishment, 
Praise  and  Blame  (Boston,  1754). 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  349 

defense  of  what  Edwards  believed  a  threatened  Cal- 
vinism, and  endeavors  to  show  that  man  has  sufficient 
freedom  to  be  responsible  for  his  actions,  that  he  is 
not  forced  to  act  counter  to  his  inchnation,  and  yet 
that  that  inchnation  depends  on  what  man  deems 
his  highest  good.  While  man  has  full  natural  power 
to  serve  God — that  is,  could  freely  serve  God  if  he 
had  such  an  inchnation — he  will  not  serve  God  till  God 
reveals  himself  to  man  as  his  highest  good  and  thus 
renders  obedience  to  God  man's  strongest  motive. 
Edwards  sought  thus  to  maintain  God's  absolute 
sovereignty  and  complete  disposal  of  his  creatures, 
while  holding  men  yet  responsible.  No  keener  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  this  cardinal  tenet  of  Calvinism 
has  ever  been  advanced ;  yet  the  work  is  one  so  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  prevaihng  rehgious  thought  of  the 
present  age  that  is  now  largely  neglected. 

Even  less  present  sympathy  is  commanded  by 
Edwards'  exposition  of  Original  Sin,^  issued  in 
1758.  He  affirms  the  utter  corruption  of  mankind 
at  whatever  stage  of  existence  from  infancy  to  old 
age,  and  traces  that  evil  state  to  our  share  in  Adam's 
sin  by  a  theory  more  ingenious  than  convincing. 
That  which  makes  the  individual  man  the  same  being 
today  he  was  yesterday  is  the  constant  creative 
activity  of  God.  In  hke  manner,  God,  by  an  "arbi- 
trary constitution, "  has  made  all  men  one  with  Adam, 
so  that  his  primal  sin  is  really  theirs  also. 

I  The  Great  Christian  Doctrine  of  Original  Sin  Defended 
(Boston,  1758). 


3SO    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

The  two  works  just  described  were  published  in 
Edwards'  lifetime ;  but  two  further  discussions  had 
been  completed  and  were  issued  seven  years  after 
his  death.  One  was  Concerning  the  End  for  Which 
God  Created  the  World,  and  had  for  its  purpose  to 
demonstrate  that  the  manifestation  of  the  glory  of 
the  creator,  and  the  largest  happiness  of  human 
beings,  far  from  being  incompatible  purposes,  as  had 
been  generally  supposed,  were  "really  one  and  the 
same  thing."  The  universe  in  its  highest  possible 
state  of  happiness  is  the  completest  exhibition  of  the 
divine  glory. 

Most  influential  on  New  England  thinking  of  any 
of  Edwards'  writings,  though  not  so  famous  as  his 
Freedom  oj  Will,  was  the  second  of  these  posthumous 
publications,  his  Nature  oj  True  Virtue.  In  his  think- 
ing all  virtue  may  be  reduced  to  a  single  elemental 
principle.  It  is  benevolence  or  love  toward  intelHgent 
being  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  being  which 
each  personahty  possesses.  No  love  less  wide  than 
this  can  be  really  good.  Judged  by  this  standard,  a 
man  must  love  God  and  his  fellow-men  more  than 
he  does  himself.  As  interpreted  by  popular  thought, 
it  taught  that  sin  is  selfishness  and  righteousness  is 
disinterested  love  to  God  and  to  one's  fellows.  No 
wonder  that  the  earhest  American  foreign  mission- 
aries came  from  the  ranks  of  Edwards'  disciples. 

In  these  works  the  American  mind  reached  the 
highest  level  it  attained  in  the  eighteenth  century. 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  351 

They  won  widespread  respect  for  their  author  as  a 
man  of  genius,  and  they  made  thousands  of  theo- 
logical disciples.  It  seemed  as  if  Edwards  was  to 
have  further  opportunities  to  impress  his  thoughts 
and  character  on  young  men  as  the  head  of  a  school 
of  learning.  Princeton  College  had  been  founded 
in  1746,  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  warm-hearted, 
revivahstic  type  of  piety  in  furtherance  of  which 
Edwards  had  done  such  service.  In  1757  he  was 
called  to  its  presidency.  He  hesitated  to  accept. 
Stockbridge  afforded  him  the  opportunity  of  quiet 
study  and  leisure  for  writing.  Yet  the  possibihty  of 
influencing  men  in  their  formative  years  which  the 
headship  of  Princeton  would  afford  was  not  to  be 
decHned.  Early  in  1758  he  removed  to  the  scene  of 
his  new  work.  The  small-pox  was  raging,  and  as  a 
preventive  measure  he  had  himself  inoculated.  The 
disease,  although  usually  mild  under  such  circum- 
stances, took  an  unfavorable  turn,  and  on  March  22, 
1758,  he  died. 

No  man  more  fittingly  symbohzes  eighteenth- 
century  New  England  at  its  best  than  Jonathan 
Edwards.  High-minded,  upright  in  all  his  dealings, 
learned,  a  devoted  preacher,  and  a  theologian  of 
surpassing  power,  he  represented  that  love  of  learn- 
ing, that  carefulness  of  conduct,  and  that  sense  of 
the  primacy  of  the  concerns  of  the  soul,  which  was 
characteristic  of  his  people  in  their  noblest  develop- 
ment— often,  unfortunately,  unrealized  in  the  average 


352     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

man  of  that  or  any  other  age.  His  controversies  are 
now  ancient  issues  from  which  interest  has  largely 
vanished.  His  theology  was  molded  by  the  view- 
points of  his  age,  and  awakens  only  a  partial  response 
in  the  present.  But  one  characteristic  abides  in 
power  and  must  forever  link  him  with  the  great  men 
of  all  Christian  history.  He  had — and  in  a  pecuHar 
degree  he  made  men  feel  that  he  had — a  conscious- 
ness of  the  reality  and  presence  of  God.  God  was 
not  to  him  a  being  remote  and  obscure.  He  was 
the  closest  of  friends,  the  highest  object  of  his  loy- 
alty, his  adoration,  and  his  love.  That  he  walked 
close  with  God  must  always  be  the  deepest  impression 
which  Edwards  makes  on  those  who  come  to  know 
him  and  to  understand  the  sources  of  his  power. 

QUESTIONS 

5      I.  What  influences  led  to  the  founding  of  the  New  England 

colonies  ?    What  was  the  religious  character  of  the  settlers  ? 

2.  What  causes  induced  a  decline  from  the  religious  zeal 
of  the  founders  ? 

3.  When  and  where  was  Jonathan  Edwards  born?  His 
parentage  and  early  education  ?     His  promise  as  a  student  ? 

4.  What  were  the  circumstances  of  Edwards'  conversion? 
What  effect  did  it  have  on  his  conceptions  of  religion  ? 

5.  Where  did  Edwards  teach  ?    With  what  success  ? 

6.  Whom  did  Edwards  marry?     Her  character? 

7.  Where  was  Edwards'  first  pastorate?  His  character 
as  a  preacher?  The  first  revival?  What  attention  did  it 
excite  ? 

8.  When  did  Whitefield  come  to  New  England?  Effect 
of  his  preaching  ?    What  was  Edwards'  relation  to  the  revival  ? 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS  353 

9.  What  were  the  teachings  of  Edwards'  Treatise  Concern- 
ing Religious  Affections  ?  What  change  came  over  his  views  of 
the  terms  of  admission  to  communion  ?  What  effect  had  this 
change  on  his  relations  to  his  Northampton  church  ? 

10.  Where  was  Edwards  next  settled  ?  What  advantages 
and  disadvantages  had  the  place  for  him?  What  was  his 
chief  work  there  ? 

11.  Describe  Edwards'  Freedom  of  Will.  What  impor- 
tance is  generally  attached  to  it  ? 

12.  Speak  of  Edwards'  Original  Sin.  Is  its  argument  of 
permanent  value  ? 

13.  What  was  the  aim  of  his  treatise,  Concerning  the  End 
for  Which  God  Created  the  World? 

14.  What  was  the  importance  of  his  Nature  of  True 
Virtue  ?     Its  conception  of  righteousness  ? 

15.  What  college  presidency  did  Edwards  accept?  His 
death  ?    His  character  ? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

S.  E.  Dwight,  The  Life  of  President  Edwards  (New  York, 

1830). 
Alexander  V.  G.  Allen,  Jonathan  Edwards  (Boston,  1889). 
Williston  Walker,  Ten  New  England  Leaders  (Boston,  1901), 

pp.  215-63. 


S<^ 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


XX 

HORACE   BUSHNELL 

Though  the  "Great  Awakening"  of  1740-42 
aroused  what  are  now  the  New  England  and  the 
middle  states  more  intensely  while  it  lasted  than  any 
other  revival  in  their  history,  its  effects  speedily 
passed.  As  a  whole,  the  eighteenth  century  was  a 
period  of  religious  decline  in  American  history. 
The  struggle  for  independence,  which  was  but  the 
severest  of  several  wars  in  which  public  interest  was 
profoundly  enlisted,  and  the  absorbing  discussions 
which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  turned  men's  minds  largely  from 
spiritual  interests.  WiiJi--ihe_XQndusion_  of  these 
debates,  hQa[£Ye_r,  a  new  and  protracted  period  of 
religious  awakening  began.  Commencing  in  1792, 
and  continuing  at  intervals  till  1858,  great  revivals 
occurred  in  New  England,  the  middle  and  southern 
states,  and  the  new  West  of  that  age  which  is  now 
the  central  region  of  the  United  States.  It  was  a 
time  of  universal  quickening.  Evangelists,  of  whom 
Rev.  Charles  G.  Finney  may  be  mentioned  as  typical, 
preached  with  constant  evidence  of  power  to  move 
men.  Itinerant  missionaries  of  Methodism,  and 
ministers  of  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  Congregational, 
and  other  communions  carried  the  gospel  message 
to  the  new  settlers  on  the  ever-extending  frontier  and 
357 


358     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

organized   them   into   churches.     Ministerial  train- 
ing received  a  great  impetus  through  the  establish- 
ment of  theological  seminaries.     Foreign  missions 
were  inaugurated  in  1810.     Temperance  reform  be- 
gan its  beneficent  work  before  the  nineteenth  century- 
had  far  advanced.     The  agitation  against  slavery. 
more  and  more  enlisted  attention  from  the  fourth 
decade  of  that  century  till  its  settlement  in  the  tre- 
/mendous   struggle   between   the   states.     The   long 
period  from  1792  to  1865  was,  beyond  any  other  in 
I  American  history,  one  of  religious  growth  and    of 
\  quickening  of  public   conscience    on    questions    of 
(moral  reform. 

In  its  dominant  theological  problems,  its  attitude 
toward  theology  in  general,  and  its  conception  of  the 
Christian  life  this  period  still  bore  the  mighty  impress 
of  the  leaders  of  the  eighteenth  century.  With 
Wesley^^  Whitefjeld,  and  Edwards,  men  felt  that  the 
^ormal_method  of  entrance  into  the  Kingdom _oL 
_God  was  by  a  conscious  surrender — a  "conversion." 
losecure^such  conversions  w^^         i^^j^^^  ^^  revival 

effort, Salvation,  was  emphasized  injts  individuaF 

rather  than  jts_soc.ial  aspects.  


The  questions  with  which  that  period  concerned 
itself  in  theology  were  essentially  those  which 
Edwards  had  made  prominent;  and  as  with  the 
eighteenth-century  thinkers,  theology  was  regarded 
^  capableof  as  exact,  and  as  fundamentally  infeF* 
lectuaT^^^^eSmtion   as   the   pToblems   of   geometry. 


• 


/ 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  359 

Theology  was  based  on  the  apprehensions  of  the 
understanding  rather  than  on  the  feehngs,  and,  being 
so  based,  was  largely  in  bondage  to  formalism  in 
logical  method  and  definition.  This  conception  of 
theology  trained  a  race  of  giant  wrestlers;  but  it 
tended  to  magnify  intellectual  differences  in  the 
apprehension  of  relatively  minor  aspects  of  Christian 
truth  into  barriers  scarcely  to  be  passed.  No  period 
in  our  religious  history  has  therefore  been  more 
proHfic  in  denominational  divisions. 

Contemporary  with  this  period,  however,  modi- 
fications of  a  very  wide-reaching  character  were  tak- 
ing place  in  theology  in  Germany  and  England.  The 
nature  and  work  of  Christ,  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
and  the  bases  of  religious  truth  were  being  re-ex- 
amined. The  character  of  theologic  proof  was 
investigated  anew.  These  European  discussions 
were  ^ow  in  influencing  American  thought,  and  their 
effects  Nv^ere  scarcely  felt  in  the  period  just  described, 
though  they  have  since  come  in  as  a  flood.  That 
when  they  did  come  they  created  no  more  conflict 
than  actually  occurred  was  due  in  considerable 
measure,  at  least  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the 
United  States,  to  the  work  of  Horace  Bushnell,  who 
with  slight  knowledge  of  what  was  in  progress  abroad, 
wrought  on  similar  lines,  presented  an  altered  basia. 
for  theological  conviction,  and  made  their  pathway _ 
easier  for_many  when  the  time  of  transition  and  re- 
statement arrived.  '^ 


360     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Horace  Bushnell  was  born  on  April  14,  1802,  in 
the  village  of  Bantam  in  the  township  of  Litchfield, 
Connecticut.  His  parents  were  of  sturdy,  enter- 
prising farming  stock.  His  father  had  been  trained 
a  Methodist;  his  mother  an  Episcopahan,  but  both 
were  devoted  members  of  the  Congregational  church, 
which  was  the  only  place  of  worship  in  New  Preston, 
Connecticut,  whither  they  removed  when  their  son 
was  three  years  old.  In  New  Preston,  Bushnell 
spent  an  active,  hard-working  boyhood;  ^andjhgre 
he  made  pubHc  profession  of  his  Christian  faith  when 
nineteen  years  old  in  182 1.  Two  years  later  he 
entered  Yale,  graduating  in  due  course  in  1827. 

Bushnell's  college  course  was  a  time  of  intellectual 
questioning  and  painful  doubt.  He  began  to  fear 
that  religion  could  never  be  demonstrated  by  the 
understanding — the  only  way  in  which  he  then  knew 
how  to  approach  Christian  truth.  In  this  distressed 
frame  of  mind  he  met  with  the  Aids  to  Reflection j 
that  profoundly  influential  volume  which  the  Eng- 
lish poet-philosopher,  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  had 
published  in  1825.  It  was  hard  reading  but  it 
opened  to  Bushnell  a  new  world.  Coleridge  not 
merely  introduced  German  theology  to  EngHsh 
readers.  To  him  Christian  truth  is  not  so  much  to 
be  demonstrated  by  logic  as  perceived  by  ethical  and 
spiritual   feeling.'     It   derives   its   evidence   "from 

I  The  writer  has  made  some  use  of  his  address  at  the  cele- 
bration of  the  one-hundreth  anniversary  of  Bushnell's  birth  by  the 
Connecticut  General  Association,  on  June  17,  1902. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  361 

within."  These  thoughts  were  germinal  for  Bush- 
nell's  later  development.  They  were  a  radical  de- 
parture from  the  type  of  theological  demonstration 
then  characteristic  of  Anglo-Saxon  thinking.  They 
ultimately  placed  religious  certainty  for  him  on  a  new 
foundation. 

Bushnell's  doubts,  however,  did  not  immediately 
vanish.  On  graduation  he  tried  journalism  and 
next  began  the  study  of  law.  With  that  em- 
ployment he  combined  the  discharge  of  the  duties 
of  a  tutorship  in  Yale  which  he  accepted  in  1829; 
and  in  connection  with  his  labors  as  instructor  a 
crisis  in  his  faith  and  in  his  life-purposes  came. 
The  year  183 1  was  marked  by  a  revival  in 
Yale.  Bushnell  was  distressed  by  his  own  want 
of  sympathy  with  its  enthusiasm;  but  he  felt  that 
he  must  do  his  duty  by  his  students.  He  must 
follow  such  light  as  he  had.  He  must  "take  the 
principle  of  right"  for  his  law.  It  was__a-liiining-^ 
point  in  his  experience^^  A  mighty  rush  of  feel- 
ing bursf  the  barrier"  of  his  intellectual  doubts. 
As  he  said  to  his  fellow-tutors:  "I  have  a  heart 
as  well  as  a  head.  My  heart  wants  the  Father; 
my  heart  wants  the  Son;  my  heart  wants  the  Holy 
Ghost — and  one  just  as  much  as  the  other.  My 
heart  says  the  Bible  has  a  Trinity  for  me,  and  I 
mean  to  hold  by  my  heart."  "The  whole  sky"  of 
his  religious  firmament  became  "luminous  about 
him;"    and  through  this  gateway  of  the  feelings 


362     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Bushnell  entered  into  the  freedom  and  certainty  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God.' 

Bushnell's  new-found  faith  decided  him  to  enter 
the  ministry,  and,  from  183 1  to  1833,  ^^  ^^^  a  student 
in  the  theological  department  of  Yale.  On  May  22, 
of  the  year  last  mentioned  he  was  ordained  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  North  Congregational  Church  in 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  so  entered  on  the  service 
of  the  city  which  was  to  be  henceforth  his  home. 

In  Hartford  Bushnell  soon  won  attention  as  a 

preacher  and  a  public-spirited  citizen.     As  a  pastor 

he  was  greatly  beloved.     Not^  an  praipr  inilieordi- 

_nary  sense,  his  sermons  and  public  addresses  were, 

nevertheless,  of  impressive  power,  and  continue  to 

'^command  appreaatl^^^^  as  among^ 

the  bp'^tpoHnrHonc;  of  tVip   Amprif^n   pulpit  of  the 

"  rimHeenthTcentury,  As  a  citizen,  he  was  a  man  of 
far-reaching  vision  and  inspiring  leadership.  Hart- 
ford owed  to  him  much  of  the  impulse  that  led  to  the 
introduction  of  public  water  works,  and  the  beautiful 
park  which  bears  his  name  was  secured,  in  1853  and 
1854,  entirely  by  his  efforts  at  a  time  when  the  public 
mind  had  not  generally  awakened  to  the  desirability 
of  such  improvements.  This  breadth  and  vitality 
of  interest  were  the  more  remarkable  because  Bush- 
nell's Hartford  ministry  was  conducted  under  great 
physical    disabilities.     A    tendency    to    pulmonary 

I  Mary  Bushnell  Cheney,  Life  and  Letters  of  Horace  Bushnell 
(New  York,  1880),  pp.  56,  59. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  S^S 

affection  was  evident  as  early  as  1845.  In  that  year 
and  the  next  he  sought  health  in  Europe.  Ten  years 
later  he  went  on  the  same  errand  to  Cuba;  most  of 
1856  was  spent  in  California;  but  his  disabilities  so 
advanced  that,  in  1859,  he  had  to  lay  down  the 
burdens  of  the  pastorate,  and  the  remainder  of  his 
Hfe  he  himself  aptly  described  as  one  of  "broken 
industry."  Industrious  it  always  was,  and  the 
marvel  was  that  so  feeble  a  frame  could  serve  the 
active  spirit  as  efficiently  as  it  did. 

Bushnell's  first  considerable  doctrinal  discussion 
arose,  in  1847,  by  reason  of  the  pubhcation  of  two 
Discourses  on  Christian  Nurtured  The  age,  as  has 
been  pointed  out,  was  dominated,M-CQn£epliQns_of 
entrance  on  the  Christian  life  by  a  conscious,  strug- 
gling "conversion ' '  whichJWesley  and  Edwards  had 
made  prominenr""''Overaiaii^^  teaching  Bush- 
nell  emphasizedjhivalue  of  family  training.  -Jiis 
argument  was  "that  the  child  should  grow  up  a 
Chri^an^"  to  which  he  added  the  further  explana- 
tion in  the  second  edition  of  his  work,  ^and^ever 
kn93aLiuffisdLas-.being-otheiwise. "  "  He  is  to  open 
on  the  world  as  one  that  is  spiritually  renewed,  not 
remembering  the  time  when  he  went  through  a 
technical  experience,  but  seeming  rather  to  have 
loved  what  is  good  from  his  earliest  years.  "^     Here, 

I  Boston  and  Hartford.     An  enlarged  and  revised  edition  was 
published  at  New  York  in  1861. 
a  Edition  of  1861,  p.  10. 


364    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

then,  was  a  sweeping  criticism  of  what  most  of  his 
contemporaries  in  non-prelatical  American  churches 
believed  to  be  the  only  normal  mode  of  entrance  on 
the  Christian  Hfe;  a  presentation,  moreover,  which 
identified  the  natural  and  the  supernatural  as  but 
different  sides  of  one  divine  order.  Doubtless,  its 
emphasis,  like  that  of  the  view  it  opposed,  was  one- 
sided. There  are  many  doors  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  Nathanael  came  as  truly  as  Paul.  But,  in 
.the  existing  state  of  religious  opinion^  Bushnell's 
doctrine  encounteredstrenuous  opposition.  Yet  no 
theory  advocated^by  him  has  won  so  wide  acceptance, 
even  if  it  is  stilljar  from  meeting  universal  approval. 
A  profound  religious  experience  through  which 
Bushnell  passed  in  February,  1848,  prepared  him 
for  three  remarkable  addresses  of  that  year,  which  he 
gathered  together  in  a  volume  and  published,  in 
184Q,  as  Godwin  nhrl^t,^  To  them  he  prefaced  a 
"Dissertation  on  Language ^^  in  which  he  explained, 
\J  moremlly  than  elsewhere,  his  convictions  as  to  the 
{ nature  and  hmitations  of  theolog3^_  Tojiis  thinking, 
the  effort  of  theologians  to  define  the  exact  content 
of  religious  truth  in  precise  logical  formulas  was  an 
attempt  ^o  achieve  the  impossible,,  since  language 
cQiildJiave  no  sucL^iower.  Its  words  are  more  or 
less  imperfect  symbols  of  the  realities  they  typify. 
Onthe  contrary^Christian  truth  is  to  be  felt  rather 
than  logic  allyto  be  demonstrate — ^IThere  is  a 

I  Hartford. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  365 

perceptive  power  in  spiritijiaLlife  .  .  .  .  ,  an  imme- 
diate experimental  knowledge  of  God,  by  virtue  of 
which;  and  partly  in  the  degree  of  which,  Christian 
theology  is  possible."^  Bushnell  thus  voices  the 
appeal  of  ChristianityiXaJhe.. ethical. an^^^  religious 
Teefings. 

Having  laid  down  these  principles,  Bushnell  pro- 
ceeded to  define  the  Trinity  and  the  Atonement  ia_ 
terms  of  Christian  experience.  What  God  may  be 
in  the  depths  oThis" infinite  existence  we  may  not 
grasp,  but  to  our  finite  experience  he  is  known  as 
Father,  Son,  and  Spirit.  .  Christ's  work^^  also,  as 
^ownby  our  experience  ol  it>  is  not  a  penal  satisfac- 
tion to  God  for  our  sins j^  nor  a  governmental  expres- 
sion of  God's  moral  rulership.  Its  effect  is  upon  us. 
It  is~tEe~ulfirhate  expression  of  God's  outreaching 
^([J^/to  us,  designed  to  draw  us  to  him  and  lead  us 
to  regard  sin  and  holiness  from  his  point  of  view. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  work  that  controverted 
then  current  theology  at  so  many  points  aroused 
great  dissent,  and  a  demand  that  Bushnell  be  sub- 
jected to  discipline.  His  own  local  association, 
though  far  from  sympathizing  in  his  views,  declared 
him  not  "justly  subjected  to  a  charge  of  heresy." 
But  another  association  brought  the  question  before 
the  General  Association  of  Connecticut  by  appeals  in 
1849  ^^d  1850,  which  were  repeated  in  1852,  1853, 
and  1854.     It  was  a  stormy  time;  but,  in  the  end,  the 

I  God  in  Christ,  p.  93. 


366     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

General  Association  refused  to  override  the  action 
of  the  local  association  of  which  Bushnell  was  a  mem- 
ber. Thenceforward  he  was  free  from  the  peril  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline. 

Bushnell' s  ahready  feeble  health  was  shattered  by 
these  labors  and  struggles;  but  in  his  invalidism  he 
labored  on  the  work  which  cost  him  most  effort  and 
to  which  he  devoted  his  maturest  thought.  Pub- 
lished at  length  in  1858,  it  bore  the  iiile^JSlaturejind 
ihe  ^2J4t^niM!Jj:£il  as  Together  Constituting  the  One 
System  of  God.^  Its  contention  is  expressed  in  its 
title.  The  thought  of  the  time  separated  the  realm 
of  nature  and  that  of  the  supernatural  by  a  great 
gulf.  A  miracle^  was  a  suspension  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  which  were  for  the  time  being  as  if  they  were 
not.  In  opposition  to  these  views  Bushnell  argued 
that  the  two  realms  are  in  constant  contact.  Man 
Jjves  jn  SotE7  In  part_ofjis  range  orE^Iiels,  in^the 
sphere  of  cause  and  effect — of  nature;  in  part  he  is 
fr^eT'-seif-gDvernirig"©!-  "sirihlng,  not  under  a  law  of 
cause*and  effect,  but  in  the  realm  of  the  supernat- 
jiralpi".  e.,  that  which  is  above  the  world  of  nature. 
Doubtless  the  growth  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  has 
rendered  obsolete  much  of  Bushnell' s  argument;  but 
its  general  trend  is  in  the  direction  in  which  modern 
theology  has  moved,  that  of  emphasizing  the  im- 
manence of  God,  and  of  .showing  that  the  spiritual 
and  the  natural  combine  in  the  commonest  ongoings 

I  New  York,  1858. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  367 

of  everyday  life  no  less  than  in  the  great  progress  of 
redemption. 

Bushnell's  work  was  by  no  means  accomplished 
when  the  volume  just  described  was  given  to  the 
world,  but  its  more  permanently  influential  part 
had  already  been  achieved.  Two  sturdy  and  care- 
fully wrought  treatises,  having  to  do  with  the  Atone- 
ment, were  to  follow — The  Vicarious  Sacrifice 
Grounded  in  Principles  of  Universal  Obligation,  pub- 
lished in  1866,  and  Forgiveness  and  Law  Grounded 
in  Principles  Interpreted  by  Human  Analogies,  of 
1874.  Their  argument  holds  that  "love  is  a  prin- 
ciple essentially  vicarious  in  its  own  nature."  All 
love  really  worthy  of  the  name,  whether  in  God  or 
man,  strives  to  take  on  itself  in  helpful  sympathy  the 
sufferings  and  sins  of  the  object  of  its  affection.  So 
Christ  bore  our  sins  in  suffering  for  us,  and  so  he 
/"^reveals  God's  love  to  us.  It  was  not  by  his  interpre- 
tation  of  specific  doctrines,  however,  that  Bushnell 
hifluenced_h^_age^_sojn[iuch  as  by  his  general  attitude 
I  toward  theologjc  truth, ^nd  the  basis  of  its  appeal  to 
^  men.  H^^trfod  ^''^r  th^  rights  of  thp  f'^dL'2iIg..?r'^  .^ 
Christian  experience-to  be  heard-iather  than  for  the 
demonstrations  of  logic  or  the  formulas  which  make  U^ 
theTr  appeal  pTiffi~aTity"to  th^e^nteHectuaOacurties. 


"Theology jwiOrimn  is  not  an  external  body  of  truth 
interpreted  to  the  reason,,  but  a  wami^¥ital.Ch.ristian 
life  of  fellowsTnp  wfTh  (iod  m  Christ  finding_expres- 
sion   all   too   inadequately   through   the   imperfect 


1/ 
\ 


368     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

vehicle  of  langiiage.  It  is  something  to  be  felt  before 
it  can  fully  be  known. 

With  the  publication  of  Bushnell's  volume  last 
mentioned  his  work  was  about  over.  His  last  years 
had  been  limited  by  great  physical  weakness;  but 
the  spirit  retained  all  its  eager  keenness  till  it  took  its 
flight  on  February  17,  1876.  His  was  a  remarkable 
example  of  what  may  be  accomplished  amid  the 
varied  duties  of  an  exacting  pastorate  and  under  the 
constant  burden  of  disease. 

Bushnell  was  not  a  theologian  in  the  sense  in  which 
that  designationmay__  be  applied  to  Edwards.  He 
had  nq^Hesireto  be.     He  wrought  out  no  close- 


argued  logical  system.  He  believed  none  possible, 
and  he  regarded  it  as  the  chief  evil  of  contemporary 
theology  that  men  had  made  the  endeavor.  He 
founded  no  school.  No  party  calls  itself  by  his  name. 
But  he  had  a  poet^s  fire  of  imagination,  and  a  proph- 

^t^^^j^rrpptjnn  of  the  reality  of  God.  He_strove 
iT!  Ti'^^hjl^l^  heyond  the  formulas  in  whirh  hi^j;'nn- 
temporaries  believed  Christian  truth  to  be  absolutely 
defined  to  the  greater  spiritual  verities  which  they 
andji^  alike Jelt,  but  which_Jie  regarded  their  for- 
TTmlac;  as  merely  symbolizing_and  oftentimes  misrejpre- 
senting.  He  sought  to  make  the  presentation  of 
rhrij;tianity  simpler  and  more  natural!     IirSo  "doing, 

,  he  made  easy  formany  ttie  transition  fr'ornlftg'uMgf 
to  the  newer  conceptions  of  the  Christian  faith.  His 
work  touched  and  strengtHene3"an3TH'oMenEd  many 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  369 

a  mind  that  has  been  unable  to  accept  his  presenta- 
Jiohs  of  |:ruth  in  their  fulness.  -  These  are  his  greatest 
achievements,  and  they  give  him  an  abiding  position 
in  the  history  of  American  religious  thought. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Were  the  efifects  of  the  Great  Awakening  pennanent? 
What  was  the  religious  state  of  America  during  most  of  the 
eighteenth  century?  What  great  movement  began  about 
1792? 

2.  What  were  some  of  the  results  of  the  new  revival 
period  ?    How  long  did  it  last  ? 

3.  What  was  the  dominant  conception  of  the  mode  of 
entrance  on  the  Christian  life  ?  How  was  theology  conceived  ? 
What  changes  were  in  progress  in  Europe  ? 

4.  When  and  where  was  Horace  Bushnell  born?  His 
parentage?  Religious  antecedents?  His  Christian  profes- 
sion?   Where  did  Bushnell  go  to  college? 

5.  What  was  the  argument  of  Coleridge's  Aids  to  Reflec- 
tion? What  was  its  influence  on  Bushnell?  What  was 
Bushnell's  career  immediately  after  graduation  ?  His  religious 
doubts  ?    How  were  they  overcome  ? 

6.  How  did  Bushnell  decide  to  enter  the  ministry?  His 
training?  His  settlement?  Character  of  his  preaching? 
His  services  as  a  citizen  ?    His  health  ? 

7.  What  was  the  view  advocated  in  Bushnell's  Discourses 
on  Christian  Nurture  ?  Why  and  how  did  it  oppose  the  cur- 
rent opinion  of  the  time  ? 

8.  How  came  Bushnell  to  write  his  God  in  Christ?  His 
theory  of  the  power  of  language  to  express  religious  truth? 
How  is  Christian  truth  to  be  known  ? 

9.  How  did  Bushnell  apply  his  principles  to  the  doctrines 
of  the  Trinity  and  the  Atonement  ?  What  efforts  were  made 
to  discipline  him  ? 


370    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

10.  What  was  the  significance  of  his  Nature  and  the 
Supernatural?  How,  in  his  opinion,  are  the  two  realms 
related  ? 

11.  What  were  Bushnell's  later  writings  ?  Their  purpose  ? 
What  was  the  most  significant  part  of  his  teaching  ? 

12.  Bushnell's  death?     His  influence? 

ADDITIONAL  READING 

[Mary  Bushnell  Cheney]  Life  and  Letters  of  Horace  Bushnell 
(New  York,  1880). 

Theodore  T.  Munger,  Horace  Bushnell,  Preacher  and  Theolo- 
gian (Boston,  1899). 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abelard,    theologian,    178,    179. 

Abraham,  13. 

Adeodatus,   68,   72. 

Ailli,   Pierre  d',  theologian,   210. 

Albertus  Magnus,  theologian,  181,  183. 

Albigenses,  see  Cathari. 

Alexander,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  51- 
53- 

Alexander  II,  Pope,  129,  130. 

Alexander  III,  Pope,  162,  167. 

Alexander  of  Hales,    181. 

Alexandria,  theological  school  of,  45, 
46;    Arianism  in,  48,  50-60. 

Alexios,  emperor,  144,  147,  148. 

Alypius,   72. 

Amator,    bishop  of  Auxerre,  93. 

Ambrose,  bishop  of  Milan,  71,  72, 
103,  107. 

Anabaptists,  the,  293. 

Anastasius,  Roman  emperor,  121. 

Anselm,  theologian,  178. 

Anthony,  monastic  founder,  104. 

Antioch,  siege  of,   148,   149. 

Antoninus  Pius,  Roman  emperor,  11. 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  early  hfe,  182;  a 
Dominican,  182,  183;  his  career 
183,  184;  death,  184;  his  aims. 
181,  182;  writings,  184;  the  Sum 
ma,  184,  185;  the  bases  of  truth 
i8s,  186;  sin  and  grace,  186-88 
the  sacraments,  188-90;  the  future 
state,  191;  influence,  191,  192 
mentioned,  177,  181,  197,  198. 

Arcadius,  Roman  emperor,  91. 

Argyle,  the  earl  of,  260. 

Aristotle,  influence  of,  180,  181,  223. 

Anus,  theologian,  50-56,  59,  75. 

Aries,  Synod  of,  89. 

Arndt,  Johann,  304. 

Athanasius,  early  career,  53;  purpose, 
54,  55;  theology,  54;  first  banish- 
ment, 56;  second,  57,  58;  at  Sar- 
dica,  57;  his  great  struggle,  58; 
later  exiles,  58,  60;  death,  60;  char- 
acter, 61;  mentioned,  65,  103,  105, 
106. 

Augsburg,  the  Confession  of,  231,  315; 
the  Peace  of,  231. 

Augustine,  theologian,  early  life,  67, 
68;  temptations,  68,  71;  his  son, 
68,  72;  intellectual  awakening,  68; 
dislikes  the  Bible,  60;  a  Manichae- 
an,  60,  70;  influenced  by  neo- 
Platonism,  70,  72;   professorship  in 


Milan,  70;  influenced  by  Ambrose, 
71,  72;  conversion,  71,  72;  baptism, 
72;  return  to  Africa,  73;  the  Con- 
fessions, 67,  68,  73,  80;  bishop  of 
Hippo,  73;  death,  73;  influence, 
74;  on  the  church  and  sacraments, 
75,  76,  188;  on  sin  and  grace,  76- 
80,  188;  mysticism,  80;  his  City 
of  God,  81;  mentioned,  29,  88,  90, 
91,  103,  107,  160,  178,  181,  184, 
200,  221,  222,  248. 

Augustine,    missionary,    120. 

Augustinians,  the,  219,  221,  223. 

Awakening,  the  Great,  342,  346,  347, 
357- 

Baldwin,  crusader,  147,  149,  i si- 
Baptism,  14,  IS,  26,  33,  34,  78,  189, 
190,  227. 

Bar  Cochba,  10. 

Basel,  Council  of,   218. 

Basil,  the  Great,  theologian,  60,  106, 
107. 

Beaton,  David,  Cardinal,  256,  257. 

Beaton,    James,    Archbishop,    256. 

Benedict,  monastic  reformer,  life, 
107,  108;   his  "Rule,"  108-12. 

Berkeley,    George,    Bishop,    323. 

Bernadone,  John,  see  Francis. 

Bernadone,  Peter,  164-66. 

Bernhard,  of  Clairvaux,  theologian, 
178,  179,  221. 

Bible,  translations  of  the,  161,  162, 
204,  219,  229. 

Bobadilla,  Nicolo,  278. 

Bohler,  Peter,  327. 

Bohemond,  crusader,   146,   149,    150. 

Boleyn,  Anne,  262. 

Bonaventura,   theologian,   i8i. 

Boniface  VIII,  Pope,  197. 

Boniface,  missionary,  120. 

Borgia,  Francisco,  280,  281. 

Bothwell,    the   earl   of,    266. 

Bruno,  bishop  of  Toul,  126. 

Bucer,  Martin,  reformer,   238. 

Bullinger,    Heinrich,    reformer,    239. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  religious  antecedents, 
357~59t  early  life,  360;  spiritual 
struggles,  360-62;  ministry,  362, 
363;  his  Christian  Nurture,  363; 
his  God  in  Christ,  364;  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  365,  366;  later  writings, 
366,  367;  death,  368;  influence, 
368,  369. 


373 


374     GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 


Caelestius,  79.  80. 

Cajetan,  Cardinal,  225. 

Calixtus  I,  bishop  of  Rome,  35,  36, 
44. 

Calixtus  II,  Pope,  135. 

Calpurnius,  90. 

Calvin,  John,  religious  antecedents. 
239;  early  life,  239;  education,  240, 
241;  his  Seneca,  241;  conversion, 
241-43;  the  Institutes,  2'\3,  248; 
settlement  in  Geneva,  244,  245; 
in  Slrassburg,  245;  marriage,  24s; 
return  to  Geneva,  245,  246;  the 
Consistory,  246;  opposition,  246; 
Servetus,' 246;  the  Academy,  247; 
his  aims  and  activities,  247, 
248;  relations  to  Knox,  255,  259; 
death,  248;  theology,  248-51; 
mentioned,  258,  277. 

Canstein,  Baron  von,  307. 

Cappel,  battle  of,  239. 

Carlos,  prince  of  Spain,  266. 

Cassiodorius,  in. 

Cathari,  the,  160-62,  170,  173. 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  261. 

Catholic,  origin  of  name,  23;  see^ 
also.  Church. 

Ceiestine,  Pope,  93,  94- 

Chalcedon,    Council   of,    65. 

Charlemagne,  emperor,  121-23. 

Charles  I,  king  of  England,  290, 

Charles  V,  emperor,  228,  229. 

Christ,  the  person  of,  6,  13,  36,  48-51, 
53-55,  59.  65  66;  imitation  of ,  159, 
160;  the  work  of,  187,  221,  232, 
240,  365.  367.        ^  ^ 

Christian  VI,  kmg  of  Denmark,  311. 

Church,  the  "Old-Catholic,"  7,  23, 
24,  27,  29,  30;  theories  of  member- 
ship, 34-36;  Augustine's  doctrine, 
7S;  Wiclif  and  Huss,  201,  210; 
Luther,  224,  227,  232. 

Cicero,  68. 

Cisnero,  of  Manresa,  276. 

Clement,  of  Alexandria,  45. 

Clement,  of  Rome,  119. 

Clement  III,   anti-Pope,   134. 

Clement  VII,  anti-Pope,  205. 

Cluny,  the  monastery  and  movement, 
125-27,  142,  143,  147- 

Coke,  Thomas,  334. 

Coleridge,   Samuel  Taylor,   360. 

Columbaj  missionary,  98. 

Commimion,  see  Supper. 

Congregationalists,  the,  289,  290. 

Conrad  III,  emperor,  152. 

Constance,  Council  of,  205,  211,  212, 
218,  226. 

Constans,  Roman  emperor,  56-58. 

Constantine,  Roman  emperor,  favors 
Christianity,  47,  48;   in  the  Arian 


controversy,  51-53,  55,  S6;  men- 
tioned, 34,  88,  142,  148. 

Constantine  II,  Roman  emperor,  56. 

Constantine  VI,  Roman  emperor,  121. 

Constantius,  Roman  emperor,  36-58, 
60,  67. 

Cop,  Nicolas,  241,  242. 

Cotta,  Ursula,  220. 

Councils,  see  Basel,  Chalcedon,  Con- 
stance, Ephesus,  Lateran,  Pisa, 
Sardica. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  290,  295. 

Crusades,  proposed  by  Hildebrand, 
130,  131,  141;  causes,  141-43;  the 
First  Crusade,  143-51;  later  cru- 
sades, 152;    results,  152-54. 

Cyprian,  bishop  of  Carthage,  45, 
67,  103. 

Dante,  191,  198. 

Damley,  husband  of  Mary  of  Scot- 
land, 266. 

David,  Christian,  310. 

Decius,  Roman  emperor,  43. 

Diocletian,   Roman  emperor,   43,   74. 

Dionysius,  bishop  of    Rome,  49. 

Dober,  Leonhard,  missionary,  312. 

Dominicans,  the,  181,  182,  198,  224, 
275- 

Dominick,  monastic  founder,  164,  275. 

Donatists,  the,  43,  74,  75. 

Dorylaeum,  battle  of,  148. 

Duns  Scotus,  theologian,  i8i,  191. 

Du  Tillet,  Louis,  243. 

Eck,  Johann  Maier  of,  224-26. 

Edward  III,  king  of  England,  199,  200. 

Edward  VI,  king  of  England,  258, 
259,  287. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  religious  antece- 
dents, 341,  342;  early  life,  34a,  343; 
conversion,  343,  344;  marriage,  345; 
ministry  in  Northampton,  345-48; 
the  Religious  Affections,  347;  the 
Humble  Inquiry,  348;  at  Stock- 
bridge,  348;  the  Freedom  of  Witt, 
348,  350;  Original  Sin,  349; 
End  of  Creation,  350;  True  Virtue, 
350;  presidency  of  Princeton,  351; 
death,  351;  character,  351,  352; 
mentioned,  358,  363,  368. 

Edwards,  Timothy,  342. 

Embury,  Philip,  334. 

Elias,  of  Cortona,  171. 

Elizabeth,  queen  of  England,  259, 
261-63,  267,  282,  288,  289. 

Ephesus,   Council  of,   80. 

Erasmus,   scholar,    231. 

Eusebius,  bishop  of  Nicomedia, 
51,  52,  55-59- 

Eustace,  crusader,  147. 


INDEX 


375 


Farel,   Guillaume,  reformer,  244,  245. 

Fell,  Margaret,  296. 

Ferdinand,  king  of  Aragon,  219,  273, 
274- 

Finney,  Charles  G.,  revivalist,  357. 

Fox,  George,  conversion,  291  •,  re- 
ligious principles,  292-94;  preach- 
ing, 294;  the  Quakers,  293-99; 
sufierings,  294;  journeys,  295, 
296;  marriage,  296;  death,  298; 
his  work,  298,  299. 

Francis,  of  Assisi,  early  life,  164,  165; 
conversion,  165,  166;  his  brother- 
hood, 166-68;  missionary  labors, 
169;  disappointments,  170,  171; 
the  stigmata,  172;  death,  172; 
mentioned,  161,  177,  203. 

Francis  I,  king  of  France,  243. 

Francis  II,  king  of  France,  261. 

Franciscans,  the,  166-68,  172,  I73. 
181,  198,  201,  277. 

Francke,    August    Hermann,    305-8. 

Frederick  "Barbarossa,"   152. 

Frederick  IV,  king  of  Denmark,  307. 

Friedrich,  elector  of  Saxony,  225,  229. 

Gelasius  I,  Pope,  121. 

Germanus,  bishop  of  Auxerre,  93-95- 

Gersdorf,  Baroness  of,  308. 

Gnosticism,  5-7,  23,  24,  26,  49,  69, 
70,   119,   160. 

Godfrey,  of  Bouillon,  crusader,  early 
life,  146,  147;  the  march,  147- 
50;  "Protector  of  the  Holy  Sepul- 
cher,"  150;  death,  151;  character, 
151;  mentioned,  159,  177. 

Gregory  I,  Pope,  120. 

Gregory  VI,  Pope,  127. 

Gregory  VII,  Pope,  see  Hildebrand. 

Gregory  IX,  Pope,  170. 

Gregory  X,  Pope,  184. 

Gregory  XI,  Pope,  201,  202,  205. 

Gregory,  of  Nazianzen,  60,  106. 

Gregory,  of  Nyssa,  60,  106. 

Hamilton,  Patrick,  256. 

Harvard  University,  342. 

Henry  III,  emperor,  123,  126,  127, 130. 

Henry  IV,  emperor,  contest  with 
Hildebrand,  130-35;  mentioned, 
141. 

Henry  V,  emperor,  135. 

Henry  IV,  king  of  England,  209. 

Henry  VIII,  king  of  England,  262, 
287. 

Heraclitus,   philosopher,   13. 

Hermas,  early  Christian  writer,  5,  104. 

Hierakas,  ascetic,  104. 

Hildebrand,  early  life,  126,  127;  re- 
form in  papal  elections,  128;  chosen 
pope,  129;  his  principles,  129,  130, 


152;  proposes  a  crusade,  130,  131, 
141;  contest  with  Henry  IV,  130- 
35 ;  death,  134;  character,  135; 
mentioned,  121,  144,  147,  159. 

Honor atus,    monastic   founder,    92. 

Honorius,    Roman   emperor,   80,    91. 

Honorius  III,  Pope,   170. 

Hopkey,  Sophy,  326. 

Hosius,  bishop  of  Cordova,  51,  5a, 
57- 

Hospitallers,  the,  152. 

Howard,  John,  philanthropist,  320. 

Hugo,  of  St.  Victor,  theologian,  179. 

Huss,  John,  reformer,  210-13,  218, 
222,  226. 

Ignatius,  of  Antioch,  23. 

Innocent  I,  Pope,  79,  120. 

Innocent  III,  Pope,  163,  167. 

Inquisition,  the,  161. 

Irenaeus,    bishop   of    Lyons,    25-27, 

66,  119. 
Isabella,  queen  of  Castile,  219,  273, 

2  74- 

James  VI,  king  of  Scotland  (I  of 
England),  267,  289. 

Jerome,  theologian,   106. 

Jerusalem,  captured  by  Mohamme- 
dans, 142;  won  by  ,rusaders,  150; 
Latin  kingdom  of,  151,  152-,  cap- 
tured by  Saladin,  152;  Loyola  in, 
277. 

Jesuits,  see  Loyola. 

John,  the  Apostle,  25. 

John  XII,  Pope,  122. 

John,  king  of  England,  199. 

John,  of  Gaunt,  202,  207,  209. 

Julian,  Roman  emperor,  59,  6o. 

Julius,  bishop  of  Rome,  57. 

Justin  Martyr,  early  history,  8,  9; 
conversion,  10,  11;  his  Apology, 
H-16;  accusations  refuted,  12,  13; 
view  of  Christ,  13,  14;  his  Dialogue, 
9,  14;  worship  at  Rome,  15,  16; 
martyrdom,  16-19;  mentioned,  23, 
76. 

Kerboga,  Turkish  sultan,  149. 

Knights,  of  St.  John,  152. 

Knights  Templars,  152. 

Knights,  Teutonic,  152. 

Knox,  John,  religous  antecedents,  255, 
256;  early  life,  256;  conversion, 
2S7;_  at  St.  Andrews,  257,  258; 
a  prisoner,  258;  ministry  in  Eng- 
land, 258;  at  Geneva,  and  Frank- 
fort, 259;  in  Scotland,  260;  pastor 
in  Geneva,  260-62;  the  First 
Blast,  261;  the  great  struggle  in 
Scotland,  262,  263;    Protestantism 


376    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 


established,    263-65;     contest   with 
Queen  Mary,  265-67;    death,  267. 
Knox,  William,  256. 

Lainez,  Diego,  278,  280,  281. 

Landulf,   182. 

Lateran  Council,  the,  162. 

Laud,  William,  Archbishop,  321. 

Law,  William,  323,  325. 

Le  Ffevre,  Jacques,  239. 

Lef^vre,  Pierre,  278. 

Leo  I,  Pope,  65,  120. 

Leo  III,  Pope,   120,  121. 

Leo  IX,  Pope,  126,  127. 

Leo  X,  Pope,  225. 

Leo  XIII,  Pope,  184,  192. 

Liberius,  bishop  of  Rome,   58. 

Licinius,  Roman  emperor,  47. 

Locke,   John,   philosopher,   322. 

Louis  VII,  king  of  France,  152. 

Lollards,  the,  209;  see,  also,  Wiclif. 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  early  life,  274;  con- 
version, 275;  the  Spiritual  Exer- 
cises, 276-78;  studies,  277,  278; 
first  disciples,  278;  the  Society 
founded,  278;  the  "Company  of 
Jesus,"  279-83;    death,  280. 

Lucius  111,  Pope,  163. 

Lucius  Verus,  11. 

Luther,  Martin,  religious  antecedents, 
219,  220;  early  life,  220,  221; 
spiritual  struggles,  220,  221;  justi- 
fication by  faith,  77,  i70,  221,  222; 
the  Theses,  223,  224;  the  Leipzig 
Disputation,  225,  226;  the  great 
tracts,  226-28;  bums  the  bull,  228; 
at  Worms,  229;  in  the  Wartburg, 
229;  changing  attitude,  230,  231; 
marriage,  233;  death,  231;  his 
work,  232,  233;  mentioned,  103, 
209,  217,  219,  237-39,  242,  255, 
373,  287. 

Major,  John,  theologian,  256. 
Mani,  religious  founder,  69. 
Manichaeanism,  69,  70,  74,  160,  161. 
Mar,  the  earl  of,  260. 
Marburg,  Colloquy  at,  231,  238. 
Marcion,  Gnostic,  7,  15,  31- 
Marcus  Aurelius,  Roman  emperor,  11. 
Marsilius,  of  Padua,   198. 
Martin,  bishop  of  Tours,  107. 
Mary,  queen  of  England,  259,  261,  28X. 
Mary,  "Queen of  Scots,"  260-63,  265- 

67. 
Mary,  of  Guise,  259,  261-63. 
Matilda,  of  Tuscany,  132. 
Maubumus,  of  ZwoUe,  276. 
Maxentius,  Roman  claimant,  47. 
Maximilla,  Montanist,  27- 


Melanchthon,  Philip,  reformer,  231, 
238,  258. 

Methodism,  325-36;  name,  326; 
preaching,  328;  organization,  329- 
31,  333-35;   extent,  335,  336. 

Ministry,  a  priesthood,  45;  Luther's 
view  of,   232. 

Monasticism,  rise  of,  44,  59,  103;  in- 
fluence on  Augustine,  72-74;  de- 
velopment of,  103-14;  effects,  105, 
106,  113,  233. 

Monnica,  mother  of  Augustine,  67, 
70-72. 

Montanism,  27-32,  35-37,  5i- 

Montanus,  religious  enthusiast,  27. 

Moravians,  the,  213,  309-15,  326, 
327,  330. 

Moray,  the  earl  of,  260,  267. 

Moses,  religious  founder,  13. 

Newton,  Sii  Isaac,  322. 

Nicaea,  Council  of,  51-53,  148;  cap- 
ture of,  148. 

Nicholas  I,  Pope,  121,  123. 

Nicholas  II,  Pope,  128,  130. 

Nicolaitanism,  125-27,  135. 

Nitschmann,  David,  missionary,  312. 

Novatian,  theologian  and  party  leader, 
43,  49- 

Occam,  see  William  of  Occam. 
Oglethorpe,  James  Edward,  founder, 

326. 
Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  209. 
Origen,  theologian,   45,   46,   103. 
Otto  I,  emperor,  122,  123. 
Otto   III,    emperor,    123. 

Pachomius,  monastic  reformer,  105, 
107. 

Palladius,  88,  93-95. 

Papacy,  its  growth,  25,  35,  45,  57, 
58,  65,  119-36;  reform  in  elections, 
128;  its  claims,  188,  189,  197;  the 
schism,  205;  reformatory  efforts, 
218. 

Patricius,  father  of  Augustine,  67. 

Patrick,  character  and  writings,  87; 
early  life,  90;  name,  90,  94;  slavery, 
91;  conversion,  91;  wanderings, 
91-93;  identical  with  Palladius  ?  88, 
94,  95;  work  in  Ireland,  93-98; 
mentioned,  103. 

Paul,  the  Apostle,  3-5,  11,  15,  26,  28, 
33,  48,  68,  77,  92,  172,  221,  222,  364, 

Paul   III,   Pope,   279. 

Pelagius,  theologian,  75-77,  79,  80, 
89,  93- 

Penn,  William,  Quaker,  296,  297. 

Pennsylvania,  297,  314. 

Persecutions,  8,  11,  12,  29,  43,  74. 


INDEX 


377 


Peter,  the  Hermit,  crusader,  145,  146. 

Peter  Lombard,  theologian,  179. 

Philip  I,  king  of  France,  144. 

Philip  II,  king  of  France,  152. 

Philip  IV,  king  of  France,  197. 

Philip  II.  king  of  Spain,  266. 

Pierpont,  James,  345. 

Pierpont,  Sarah,  345. 

Pietism,  304,  308. 

Pippin,  the  Short,  Frankish  king,  121. 

Pisa,  Council  of,  218. 

Plato,   philosopher,   9,   14,   31. 

Polycarp,   of  Smyrna,   25. 

Pontitianus,   72. 

Possidius,  bishop  of  Calama,  67. 

Pothinus,  bishop  of  Lyons,  26. 

Potitus,  90. 

Poverty,  "apostolic,"  159,  160,  162, 

166,  167,  169,  209. 
Praxeas,  heretic,  31,  36. 
Presbyterianism,  264._ 
Prierias,  controversialist,  224. 
Princeton   University,   351. 
Prisca,    Montanist,    27. 
Protestant,    the   name,    231. 
Puritans,  the,  288-90,  304,  305,  321, 

341,  342. 

Quakers,  see  Fox. 

Raymond,  of  Toulouse,   146,   150. 
Richard  I,  king  of  England,  152. 
Richard   II,   king  of   England,    207, 

209,  210. 
Rizzio,  David,  266. 
Robert,   of  Normandy,   146. 
Rodriguez,  Simon,  278. 
Rome,  early  worship  in,  15,  16;    see, 

also.  Papacy. 
Rudolf,  of  Swabia,  133,  134. 
Rusticus,  Junius,  Roman  magistrate, 

16-19. 

Sabellius,  theologian,   49. 
Sacraments,  the,  75,  76,  188-90,  227, 

232,  249,  294,  303. 
Saladin,  159. 
Salmeron,  Alonso,  278. 
Sardica,  Council  of,  57,  58,  119. 
Scholasticism,  177,  180,  181.  217,  303. 
Scifi,  Clara,  monastic  founder,  168. 
Scotus,  see  t)uns. 
Separatists,  the,  289. 
Septimius  Severus,   Roman  emperor, 

29. 
Servetus,  Michel,   246. 
Sigismund,  emperor,  211. 
Simony,  125-27,  130,  135. 
Socrates,   philosopher,   13. 
Spangenberg,  August  Gottlieb,  315. 
Spener,  Philipp  Jakob,  304-6,  308. 


Staupitz,  Johann  von,  221. 

Stephen  IX,  Pope,  127. 

Stephen,  of  Blois,  146. 

Stoddard,  Solomon,  343,  34s,  347- 

Supper,  the  Lord's,   16,  45,  190,  206, 

210,  227,  238,  282,  347,  348. 
Sutri,  Synod  of,  123. 
Symmachus,  Roman  governor,   70. 

Tancred,    crusader,    146,    182. 

Templars,  the,  152. 

TertuUian,  early  life,  28;  character 
and  conversion,  29,  30;  his  Montan- 
ism,  29-32,  35-37;  service  to  Latin 
theology,  30,  33;  writings,  30,  31; 
view  of  Christianity,  31-33;  attitude 
toward  "heretics,"  32;  sense  of 
sin,  32,  33;  on  forgiveness,  34-36; 
quarrel  with  Calixtus,  35,  36;  on  the 
Trinity,  36;  his  style,  a  quotation, 
37-39;  mentioned,  44,  46,  49,  68, 
103,  119- 

Tertullianists,  29. 

Tetzel,  Johann,  223,  224. 

Theodosius,  Roman  emperor,  60,  71, 
91,  119. 

Thomas  of  Bradwardine,  theologian, 
200. 

Totila,  King,  108. 

Trinity,  the  doctrine  of  the,  13,  36, 
48-50,  75,  246,  361,  365- 

Trypho,  Hebrew  controversialist,  9, 
10,  14. 

Ugolino,  Cardinal,  see  Gregory  IX. 

Universities,  180. 

Urban  II,  Pope,  143-45,  i59- 

Urban  IV,  Pope,  183. 

Urban  VI,  Pope,  205. 

Valdez,  religious  leader,  162-64,  166, 

167,  203. 
Valens,  Roman  emperor,  60. 
Valentinian  III,  Roman  emperor,  120 
Valerian,  roman  emperor,  43. 
Valerius,  bishop  of  Hippo,  73. 
Vasey,  Thomas,  Methodist,  334. 
Victorinus,  rhetorician,  72. 

Waldenses,   the,    162-64,    167,    170, 
173,  212,  293. 

Waldo,  see  Valdez. 

Waterland,  Daniel,  323. 

Watts,  Isaac,  323. 

Wenzel,  king  of  Bohemia,  211. 

Wesley,  Charles,  325-27,  335. 

Wesley,  John,  religious  antecedents, 
321-24;  early  life,  324;  at  Oxford, 
325,  326;  in  America,  326;  meets 
Moravians,  326,  327;  conversion, 
327;  preaching, 328;  Methodism, or- 


378    GREAT  MEN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 


ganized,  329-31,. 333-35'.  marriage, 
331;  characteristics,  331,  332; 
theology,  332,  333;  death,  335; 
influence,  335,  336;  mentioned, 
203,  342,  343,  345.  346,  358,  363. 

Wesley,  Samuel,  324. 

Wesley,  Susannah,  324. 

Westminster  Assembly,  the,  290. 

Whatcoat,    Richard,   Methodist,   334. 

Whitefield,  George,  evangelist,  324, 
326-28,  335,  345,  346,  358. 

Wiclif,  John,  antecedents,  199;  early 
career,  200;  theory  of  "lordship," 
201;  supported  by  John  of  Gaunt, 
202;  his  "poor  priests,"  203,  204; 
his  translation  of  the  Bible,  204*, 
becomes  more  radical,  205,  206;  the 
peasant  revolt,  207,  208;  influence 
m  Bohemia,  210-13;  memory  con- 
demned, 211;   mentioned,  217,  222. 

William,  the  Conqueror,  129,  199. 

William,  of  Occam,  198. 

William,  the  Silent,  282. 

William,    Thomas,    reformer,    257. 

Wishart,   George,   reformer,   257. 

Worship,  early  Christian    at    Rome, 


IS,  16;  changes  in  third  century, 
44,  45;  monastic,  no;  Luther's 
conception  of,  233,  238;  Zwingli's, 
237,  238;    in  Scotland,  265. 

Xavier,  Francisco  de,  missionary,  278, 

280. 
Ximenes,  Spanish  reformer,  219,  274. 

Yale  University,  342,  343,  345,  360, 
361. 

Zeisberger,  David,  missionary,  314. 

Zerbolt,  of  Ziitphen,   276. 

Zinzendorf,  Nicolaus  Ludwig  von, 
early  life,  308;  type  of  piety,  308, 
316;  education,  306,  309;  the 
Moravians,  309-1 1 ;  missionary 
zeal,  311-13;  opposition,  313,  314; 
in  America,  314;  last  days  and 
character,  315,  316;  Wesley  visits, 
327- 

Zosimus,   Pope,   79,   80. 

Zwingli,  Ulrich,  reformer,  231,  237- 
39,  355. 


PRINTED  IN  THE  U.S.A. 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STUDIES 

The  Constructive  Studies  comprise  volumes  suitable 
for  all  grades,  from  kindergarten  to  adult  years,  in 
schools  or  churches.  In  the  production  of  these  studies 
the  editors  and  authors  have  sought  to  embody  not 
only  their  own  ideals  but  the  best  product  of  the 
thought  of  all  who  are  contributing  to  the  theory  and 
practice  of  modem  rehgious  education.  They  have 
had  due  regard  for  fundamental  principles  of  peda- 
gogical method,  for  the  results  of  the  best  modem 
bibhcal  scholarship,  and  for  those  contributions  to 
rehgious  education  which  may  be  made  by  the  use  of 
a  religious  interpretation  of  all  Hfe-processes,  whether 
in  the  field  of  science,  Hterature,  or  social  phenomena. 

Their  task  is  not  regarded  as  complete  because  of 
having  produced  one  or  more  books  suitable  for  each 
grade.  There  will  be  a  constant  process  of  renewal 
and  change,  and  the  possible  setting  aside  of  books 
which,  because  of  changing  conditions  in  the  religious 
world  or  further  advance  in  the  science  of  religious 
education,  no  longer  perform  their  function,  and  the 
continual  enrichment  of  the  series  by  new  volumes  so 
that  it  may  always  be  adapted  to  those  who  are 
taking  initial  steps  in  modern  religious  education,  as 
well  as  to  those  who  have  accepted  and  are  ready  to 
put  into  practice  the  most  recent  theories. 

As  teachers  profoundly  interested  in  the  problems  of 
religious  education,  the  editors  have  invited  to  co- 
operate with  them  authors  chosen  from  a  wide  territory 
and  in  several  instances  already  well  known  through 
practical  experiments  in  the  field  in  which  they  are 
asked  to  write. 


The  editors  are  well  aware  that  those  who  are  most 
deeply  interested  in  reUgious  education  hold  that 
churches  and  schools  should  be  accorded  perfect 
independence  in  their  choice  of  hterature  regardless  of 
pubHshing-house  interests  and  they  heartily  sympa- 
thize with  this  standard.  They  realize  that  many 
schools  will  select  from  the  Constructive  Studies  such 
volumes  as  they  prefer,  but  at  the  same  time  they 
hope  that  the  Constructive  Studies  will  be  most  widely 
serviceable  as  a  series.  The  following  analysis  of  the 
series  will  help  the  reader  to  get  the  point  of  view  of 
the  editors  and  authors. 

KINDERGARTEN,  4-6  YEARS 

The  kindergarten  child  needs  most  of  all  to  gain 
those  simple  ideals  of  hfe  which  will  keep  him  in  har- 
mony with  his  surroundings  in  the  home,  at  play,  and 
in  the  out-of-doors.  He  is  most  susceptible  to  a  reli- 
gious interpretation  of  all  these,  which  can  best  be 
fostered  through  a  program  of  story,  play,  handwork, 
and  other  activities  as  outlined  in 

The  Sunday  Kindergarten  (Ferris).  A  teachers'  manual 
giving  directions  for  the  use  of  a  one-  or  two-hour 
period  with  story,  song,  play,  and  handwork.  Per- 
manent and  temporary  material  for  the  children's 
table  work,  and  story  leaflets  to  be  taken  home. 

PRIMARY,  6-8  YEARS,  GRADES  I-HI 

At  the  age  of  six  years  when  children  enter  upon  a 
new  era  because  of  their  recognition  by  the  first  grade 
in  the  public  schools  the  opportunity  for  the  cultivation 
of  right  social  reactions  is  considerably  increased. 
Their  world  still,  however,  comprises  chiefly  the  home, 
the  school,  the  playground,  and  the  phenomena  of 


nature.  A  normal  religion  at  this  time  is  one  which 
will  enable  the  child  to  develop  the  best  sort  of  Hfe 
in  all  these  relationships,  which  now  present  more 
complicated  moral  problems  than  in  the  earher  stage. 
Religious  impressions  may  be  made  through  inter- 
pretations of  nature,  stories  of  life,  song,  prayer,  simple 
scripture  texts,  and  handwork.  All  of  these  are 
embodied  in 

Child  Religion  in  Song  and  Story  (Chamberlin  and  Kern). 
Three  interchangeable  volumes,  only  one  of  which  is 
used  at  one  time  in  aU  three  grades.  Each  lesson  pre- 
sents a  complete  service,  song,  prayers,  responses,  texts* 
story,  and  handwork.  Constructive  and  beautiful 
handwork  books  are  provided  for  the  pupU. 

JUNIOR,  9  YEARS,  GRADE  IV 

When  the  children  have  reached  the  fourth  grade 
they  are  able  to  read  comfortably  and  have  developed 
an  interest  in  books,  having  a  "reading  book"  in 
school  and  an  accumulating  group  of  story-books  at 
home.  One  book  in  the  household  is  as  yet  a  mystery, 
the  Bible,  of  which  the  parents  speak  reverently  as 
God's  Book.  It  contains  many  interesting  stories 
and  presents  inspiring  characters  which  are,  however, 
buried  in  the  midst  of  much  that  would  not  interest 
the  children.  To  help  them  to  find  these  stories  and 
to  show  them  the  living  men  who  are  their  heroes  or 
who  were  the  writers  of  the  stories,  the  poems,  or 
the  letters,  makes  the  Bible  to  them  a  Uving  book 
which  they  will  enjoy  more  and  more  as  the  years 
pass.    This  service  is  performed  by 

An  Introduction  to  the  Bible  for  Teachers  of  Children  (Cham- 
berlin). Story-reading  from  the  Bible  for  the  school 
and  home,  designed  to  utilize  the  growing  interest  in 
books  and  reading  found  in  children  of  this  age,  in 


cultivating  an  attitude  of  intelligent  interest  in  the 
Bible  and  enjoyment  of  suitable  portions  of  it.  Full 
instructions  with  regard  to  picturesque,  historical,  and 
social  introductions  are  given  the  teacher.  A  pupil's 
homework  book,  designed  to  help  him  to  think 
of  the  story  as  a  whole  and  to  express  his  thinking, 
is  provided  for  the  pupil. 

JUNIOR,  10-12  YEARS,  GRADES  V-VH 

Children  in  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  grades  are 
hero-worshipers.  In  the  preceding  grade  they  have 
had  a  brief  introduction  to  the  life  of  Jesus  through 
their  childish  explorations  of  the  gospels.  His 
character  has  impressed  them  already  as  heroic  and 
they  are  eager  to  know  more  about  him,  therefore  the 
year  is  spent  in  the  study  of 

The  Life  of  Jesus  (Gates).  The  story  of  Jesus  graphically 
presented  from  the  standpoint  of  a  hero.  A  teacher's 
manual  contains  full  instructions  for  preparation  of 
material  and  presentation  to  the  class.  A  partially 
completed  story  of  Jesus  prepared  for  the  introduction 
of  illustrations,  maps,  and  original  work,  together  with 
all  materials  required,  is  provided  for  the  pupil. 

In  the  sixth  grade  a  new  point  of  approach  to  some 
of  the  heroes  with  whom  the  children  are  already 
slightly  acquainted  seems  desirable.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment furnishes  examples  of  men  who  were  brave 
warriors,  magnanimous  citizens,  loyal  patriots,  great 
statesmen,  and  champions  of  democratic  justice.  To 
make  the  discovery  of  these  traits  in  ancient  characters 
and  to  interpret  them  in  the  terms  of  modem  boyhood 
and  girlhood  is  the  task  of  two  volumes  in  the  list. 
The  choice  between  them  will  be  made  on  the  basis  of 
preference  for  handwork  or  textbook  work  for  the 
children. 


Heroes  of  Israel  (Scares) .  Stories  selected  from  the  Old 
Testament  which  are  calculated  to  inspire  the  imagina- 
tion of  boys  and  girls  of  the  early  adolescent  period. 
The  most  complete  instructions  for  preparation  and 
presentation  of  the  lesson  are  given  the  teacher  in  his 
manual.  The  pupil's  book  provides  the  full  text  of  each 
story  and  many  questions  which  will  lead  to  the  consid- 
eration of  problems  arising  in  the  Ufe  of  boys  and  girls 
of  this  age. 

Old  Testament  Stories  (Corbett).  Also  a  series  of  stories 
selected  from  the  Old  Testament.  Complete  instruc- 
tions for  vivid  presentation  are  given  the  teacher  in 
his  manual.  The  pupil's  material  consists  of  a  note- 
book containing  a  great  variety  of  opportunities  for 
constructive  handwork. 

Paul  was  a  great  hero.  Most  people  know  him  only 
as  a  theologian.  His  Kfe  presents  miracles  of  courage, 
struggle,  loyalty,  and  self-abnegation.  The  next  book 
in  the  series  is  intended  to  help  the  pupil  to  see  such  a 
man.  The  student  is  assisted  by  a  wealth  of  local 
color. 

Paul  of  Tarsus  (Atkinson).  The  story  of  Paul  which  is 
partially  presented  to  the  pupil  and  partially  the  result 
of  his  own  exploration  in  the  Bible  and  in  the  hbrary. 
Much  attention  is  given  to  story  of  Paul's  boyhood 
and  his  adventurous  travels,  inspiring  courage  and 
loyalty  to  a  cause.  The  pupil's  notebook  is  similar  in 
form  to  the  one  used  in  the  study  of  Gates's  "Life  of 
Jesus, "  but  more  advanced  in  thought. 

HIGH  SCHOOL,  13-17  YEARS 

In  the  secular  school  the  work  of  the  eighth  grade 
is  tending  toward  elimination.  It  is,  therefore,  con- 
sidered here  as  one  of  the  high-school  grades.  In  the 
high-school  years  new  needs  arise.    There  is  necessary 


a  group  of  books  which  will  dignify  the  study  of  the 
Bible  and  give  it  as  history  and  hterature  a  place  in 
education,  at  least  equivalent  to  that  of  other  histories 
and  Uteratures  which  have  contributed  to  the  progress 
of  the  world.  This  series  is  rich  in  bibhcal  studies 
which  will  enable  young  people  to  gain  a  historical 
appreciation  of  the  religion  which  they  profess.  Such 
books  are 

The  Gospel  According  to  Mark  (Burton).  A  study  of  the 
life  of  Jesus  from  this  gospel.  The  fuU  text  is  printed  in 
the  book,  which  is  provided  with  a  good  dictionary  and 
many  interesting  notes  and  questions  of  very  great 
value  to  both  teacher  and  pupil. 

The  First  Book  of  Samuel  (Willett).  Textbook  for  teacher 
and  pupil  in  which  the  fascinating  stories  of  Samuel, 
Saul,  and  David  are  graphically  presented.  The  com- 
plete text  of  the  first  book  of  Samuel  is  given,  many 
interesting  explanatory  notes,  and  questions  which 
wiU  stir  the  interest  of  the  pupil,  not  only  in  the  present 
volume  but  in  the  future  study  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Life  of  Christ  (Burgess).  A  careful  historical  study  of 
the  life  of  Christ  from  the  four  gospels.  A  manual  for 
teacher  and  pupil  presents  a  somewhat  exhaustive  treat- 
ment, but  full  instructions  for  the  selection  of  material 
for  classes  in  which  but  one  recitation  a  week  occurs 
are  given  the  teacher  in  a  separate  outline. 

The  Hebrew  Prophets  (Chamberlin).  An  inspiring  presen- 
tation of  the  lives  of  some  of  the  greatest  of  the  prophets 
from  the  point  of  view  of  their  work  as  citizens  and 
patriots.  In  the  manual  for  teachers  and  pupils  the 
biblical  text  in  a  good  modern  translation  is  included. 

Christianity  in  the  Apostolic  Age  (Gilbert).  A  story  of 
early  Christianity  chronologically  presented,  full  of 
interest  in  the  hands  of  a  teacher  who  enjoys  the  his- 
torical point  of  view. 


In  the  high-school  years  also  young  people  find  it 
necessary  to  face  the  problem  of  living  the  Christian 
life  in  a  modem  world,  both  as  a  personal  experience 
and  as  a  basis  on  which  to  build  an  ideal  society.  To 
meet  this  need  a  number  of  books  intended  to  inspire 
boys  and  girls  to  look  forward  to  taking  their  places 
as  home-builders  and  responsible  citizens  of  a  great 
Christian  democracy  and  to  intelligently  choose  their 
task  in  it  are  prepared  or  in  preparation.  The  following 
are  now  ready: 

Problems  of  Boyhood  Qohnson).  A  series  of  chapters 
discussing  matters  of  supreme  interest  to  boys  and 
girls,  but  presented  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  boy. 
A  splendid  preparation  for  efficiency  in  all  life's  relation- 
ships. 
Lives  Worth  Living  (Peabody).  A  series  of  studies  of 
important  women,  biblical  and  modem,  representing 
different  phases  of  life  and  introducing  the  opportunity 
to  discuss  the  possibilities  of  effective  womanhood  in 
the  modern  world. 
The  Third  arid  Fourth  Generation  (Downing).  A  series  of 
studies  in  heredity  based  upon  studies  of  phenomena 
in  the  natural  world  and  leading  up  to  important 
historical  facts  and  inferences  in  the  human  world. 

ADULT  GROUP 
The  Biblical  studies  assigned  to  the  high-school 
period  are  in  most  cases  adaptable ,  to  adult  class 
work.  There  are  other  volumes,  however,  intended 
only  for  the  adult  group,  which  also  includes  the 
young  people  beyond  the  high-school  age.  They  are 
as  follows : 

The  Life  of  Christ  (Burton  and  Mathews).  A  careful 
historical  study  of  the  hfe  of  Christ  from  the  four 
gospels,  with  copious  notes,  reading  references, 
maps,  etc. 


What  Jesus  Taught  (Slaten).  This  book  develops  an  unusual 
but  stimulating  method  of  teaching  groups  of  students 
in  colleges,  Christian  associations,  and  churches.  After 
a  swift  survey  of  the  material  and  spiritual  environment 
of  Jesus  this  book  suggests  outlines  for  discussions  of  his 
teaching  on  such  topics  as  civilization,  hate,  war  and 
non-resistance,  democracy,  religion,  and  similar  topics. 
Can  be  effectively  used  by  laymen  as  well  as  professional 
leaders. 

Great  Men  of  the  Christian  Church  (Walker).  A  series  of 
delightful  biographies  of  men  who  have  been  influential 
in  great  crises  in  the  history  of  the  church. 

Christian  Faith  for  Men  of  Today  ( Cook) .  A  re-interpretation 
of  old  doctrines  in  the  light  of  modern  attitudes. 

Social  Duties  from  the  Christian  Point  of  View  (Henderson). 
Practical  studies  in  the  fundamental  social  relationships 
which  make  up  life  in  the  family,  the  city,  and  the  state. 

Religious  Education  in  the  Family  (Cope).  An  illuminating 
study  of  the  possibilities  of  a  normal  religious  develop- 
ment in  the  family  life.     Invaluable  to  parents. 

Christianity  and  Its  Bible  (Waring).  A  remarkably  compre- 
hensive sketch  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 
religion,  the  Christian  church,  and  the  present  status 
of  Christianity. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Constructive  Studies  present 
no  sectarian  dogmas  and  are  used  by  churches  and  schools 
of  all  denominational  affiliations.  In  the  grammar-  and 
high-school  years  more  books  are  provided  than  there  are 
years  in  which  to  study  them,  each  book  representing  a 
school  year's  work.  Local  conditions,  and  the  preference 
of  the  Director  of  Education  or  the  teacher  of  the  class 
will  be  the  guide  in  choosing  the  courses  desired,  remember- 
ing that  in  the  preceding  list  the  approximate  place  given 
to  the  book  is  the  one  which  the  editors  and  authors  con- 
sider most  appropriate. 

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